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Social Projection as a Function of Actual Consensus
1a Department of Psychology , Syracuse University , USA.
The Journal of Social Psychology
|January 31, 2017
Summary
American students exhibit social projection, underestimating majority and overestimating minority opinions. This false consensus effect varies with actual group consensus, confirming prior meta-analytic findings.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Political Psychology
Background:
- Social projection describes how individuals estimate group consensus.
- Previous research (Mullen & Hu, 1988) identified general patterns of social projection.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate social projection patterns in American students.
- To examine how actual consensus influences social projection.
- To confirm meta-analytic findings at a primary analysis level.
Main Methods:
- Participants (American students) answered political-opinion questions.
- Participants reported their own opinions.
- Participants estimated the consensus for each opinion.
Main Results:
- Observed standard social projection: majorities underestimated consensus, minorities overestimated it (false consensus).
- Social projection varied with actual consensus: minority overestimation increased as their consensus decreased.
- Majority underestimation increased disproportionately as their consensus grew.
- False consensus magnitude decreased with greater divergence in actual majority/minority consensus.
Conclusions:
- Findings confirm established social projection patterns in a student sample.
- The study validates Mullen and Hu's (1988) meta-analytic results through primary data analysis.
- Social projection is demonstrably influenced by the degree of actual group consensus.
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