We investigated the effects of different perspective taking instructions on emotional variables in the context of intergroup reconciliation. In three experiments we found that individual-level and group-level perspective taking increased willingness to compensate an outgroup for historical transgressions of the ingroup. The data suggests that the two forms of perspective taking trigger different psychological processes. Individual-level perspective taking was more strongly linked to feelings of empathy. Group-level perspective taking increased feelings of collective guilt. Collective guilt mediated the positive effect of group-level perspective taking on willingness to compensate. No such effect was found for individual-level perspective taking.