Perceived consensus of one's social value orientation in different populations in public and private circumstances

The present research examined the influence of subjects' own social value orientation, private or public circumstances, and whether the target population was specific or general on the frequency that subjects expected their own orientation among other people. In this way, the generality of the triangle hypothesis was evaluated by varying subjects‘ identifiability and the target populations’ specificity. In accordance with the triangle hypothesis, pro-self people expected their orientation more frequently than pro-social people. As predicted by the three-tiered theory of opinion formation, subjects expected their orientation more often in public than in private circumstances. Furthermore, the triangle hypothesis was supported for the general population, but not for the specific population. In addition, support was found for the false consensus hypothesis, as subjects of each social orientation expected the occurrence of their orientation more frequently than others did. The results make new interpretations possible of previous research into the triangle hypothesis.