False consensus in social context: differential projection and perceived social distance

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Social Cognition

Background:

• The false consensus effect describes the tendency to overestimate agreement with one's own opinions and beliefs.
• Previous research often explained ingroup false consensus using social identity theory.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the role of perceived social distance in explaining why ingroup false consensus is greater than outgroup false consensus.
• To examine whether self-group and inter-group comparisons contribute to these effects.
• To test the generalizability of these findings across different samples and item types.

Main Methods:

• The study measured perceived social distance between ingroups and outgroups.
• Social categorization effects on false consensus were analyzed, with perceived social distance as a potential mediator.
• Experiments involved both student and non-student samples, using both opinion and ability items.

Main Results:

• Perceived social distance significantly mediated the effect of social categorization on false consensus.
• Ingroup false consensus was amplified when greater social distance was perceived towards the outgroup.
• Findings were consistent across diverse samples and item types (opinion and ability).

Conclusions:

• Perceived social distance provides a key explanation for the ingroup-outgroup difference in false consensus.
• Both self-group and inter-group comparison processes can underlie these effects.
• The generality of the false consensus effect is challenged when considering item type and social categorization interactions.