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The false consensus effect is the tendency for people to project their way of thinking onto other people.[1] In other words, they assume that everyone else thinks the same way they do. This supposed correlation is unsubstantiated by statistical data, leading to the perception of a consensus that does not exist. This logical fallacy involves a group or individual assuming that their own opinions, beliefs and predilections are more prevalent amongst the general public than they really are.
This bias is commonly present in a group setting where one thinks the collective opinion of their own group matches that of the larger population. Since the members of a group reach a consensus and rarely encounter those who dispute it, they tend to believe that everybody thinks the same way.
As an extension, when confronted with evidence that a consensus does not exist, people often assume that the others who do not agree with them are defective in some way.[2] There is no single cause for this cognitive bias; the availability heuristic and self-serving bias have been suggested as at least partial underlying factors. There could also be protective mechanisms behind this phenomenon.
The false consensus effect can be contrasted with pluralistic ignorance. In pluralistic ignorance, people privately disdain but publicly support a norm (or a belief), while the false consensus effect causes people to wrongly assume that most people think like them, while in reality most people do not think like them (and express the disagreement openly). For instance, pluralistic ignorance may lead a student to drink alcohol excessively because she believes that everyone else does that, while in reality everyone else also wish they could avoid binge drinking, but no one expresses that due to the fear of being ostracized. A false consensus for the same situation would mean that a student believes that most other people enjoy excessive drinking, while most other people do not enjoy that and openly express their opinion about it.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "False Consensus & False Uniqueness". Psychology Campus.com. http://www.psychologycampus.com/social-psychology/false-consensus.html. Retrieved on 2007-11-13.
- ^ "Why We All Stink as Intuitive Psychologists: The False Consensus Bias". PsyBlog. http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/11/why-we-all-stink-as-intuitive.php. Retrieved on 2007-11-13.
[edit] Further reading
- Ross L., Greene D. & House, P. (1977). The false consensus effect: An egocentric bias in social perception and attribution processes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 13, 279-301.
- Fields, James M., and Howard Schuman, (1976-77) "Public Beliefs about the Beliefs of the Public," Public Opinion Quarterly, 40: 427-448.
[edit] External links
