Accuracy in perceptions of consensus: Differential tendencies of people with majority and minority positions

When people are interested in how common one or more of their attributes is in a reference population, they must often generate their own comparison information based on a limited sample of acquaintances and experiences. Subjects in the present research were asked to describe themselves in terms of a variety of attributes, and were also asked to estimate the percentage of other college students who would indicate possession of each attribute. For each attribute, subjects were assigned a majority or minority status, depending on whether the majority of the population did or did not share their attribute. The principle findings were (1) the majority subjects generated more accurate comparison information than did the minority; (2) the majority subjects were better than chance and better than minority subjects in distinguishing between attributes for which there was high versus moderate consensus; and (3) the minority subjects tended to overestimate the consensus for their attributes, while the majority subjects tended to err in the direction of underestimation of their Consensus. The discussion focused on possible causes of these tendencies, and on research implications involving attributional biases and intergroup conflict.     

Attribution and reconstructive memory

Two experiments were conducted to test the effects of making an attribution on later memory for the event that gave rise to the attribution. Subjects in Experiment 1 observed a scenario in which an actor's behavior was associated with high or low variance (distinctiveness) across situations, and high or low congruence (consensus) to the actions of others. Subjects either made attributions for the actor's behavior immediately following the scenario or not. One week later, subjects were asked to recall consensus and distinctiveness for the actor's original behavior. Subjects who made attributions were significantly better at estimating the high-high and low-low combinations of consensus and distinctiveness than were their no-attribution counterparts. It was suggested that making an attribution may allow for a reconstructed memory for the original event, but not enhance direct access to the original event information. A second experiment tested this concept further by having subjects view an edited version of the scenario in which either the distinctiveness or the consensus information was deleted and having subjects make attributions or not. One week later, subjects were asked to indicate their certainty that consensus and distinctiveness information was a part of the original scenario and to estimate the levels of consensus and distinctiveness. Subjects who made attributions were more confident and accurate in estimating the level of consensus or distinctiveness that was given in the original scenario than were no-attribution subjects. However, attribution subjects were also more confident that consensus information or distinctiveness information was contained in the scenario (when it was not) than were the noattributio subjects. Results of the two experiments suggest that eliciting attributions can distort subsequent memory for the event on which the attributions were based.     

Similarity and uniqueness: the effects of attribute type, relevance, and individual differences in self-esteem and depression

On the basis of a self-validation perspective, it was predicted that distortions in consensus estimates would vary as a function of attribute type (opinions versus abilities), relevance of the attribute, and individual differences in self-esteem and depression. Students rated themselves on seven opinion and ability dimensions using 5-point Likert scales. Then they estimated the percentage of the other students who held each opinion/ability position, and rank ordered the opinions/abilities for personal relevance. Absolute and directional accuracy scores were computed (comparing estimated percentages with actual percentages in the sample), as well as false consensus (FCE) scores (comparing estimates of subjects holding and not holding a particular position). Subjects overestimated consensus for their opinions and low abilities, but underestimated consensus for their high abilities. Although subjects exhibited a larger FCE on opinions than abilities, there was a reliable FCE for both attributes. Relevance affected the magnitude of these biases. Higher opinion relevance was associated with increased accuracy, lower FCE scores, and smaller overestimates. Higher ability relevance was associated with decreased accuracy, greater overestimation on low abilities, and greater underestimation on high abilities. Finally, low self-esteem and depressed subjects overestimated consensus on opinions and underestimated consensus on abilities less than high self-esteem and nondepressed subjects.     

Anxiety and vulnerability in parents following the death of an infant

Empirical data on the subjectively reported anxiety reactions of 117 parents who lost an infant at birth or daring the first year of life are presented. From a retrospective survey conducted 1 to 4 years after the death it was evident that parents experienced a great deal of anxiety following the death of their child. Parents who experienced a sudden death in the home reported the strongest anxiety, but other parents who lost their child in hospital at birth or thereafter also experienced strong anxiety. The anxiety for surviving children and later-born children was extensive. In all areas mothers experienced more anxiety than fathers. More intense and longer grief in one's partner, the perceived lack of support from others, being older, and being a female were significantly correlated with anxiety. The results are interpreted as a confirmation that parents who lose their children experience a fundamental change in their beliefs about their family's future security. Better training of health personnel is required to secure an adequate follow up of families that lose a child.     

The Relationship of Imperatives and Self-Efficacy to Indices of Social Anxiety

Seventy-three college students participated in a study to assess the role of self-efficacy and imperatives in social anxiety. The students were asked to speak in front of a small group of their peers and their anxiety and length of time talking were measured. Neither lower self-efficacy nor higher levels of imperative thinking at Baseline were correlated with higher levels of anxiety. The critical finding was that subjects who showed higher levels of imperative thinking at Baseline spoke for a significantly shorter period of time. This suggests that the participant's anxiety was moderated by the performance of an instrumental response, in this situation by choosing to limit the amount of time spent talking. The results suggest the centrality of imperative thinking in shaping behavior in the domain of social anxiety.     

How to handle anxiety: The effects of reappraisal, acceptance, and suppression strategies on anxious arousal

It has been suggested that reappraisal strategies are more effective than suppression strategies for regulating emotions. Recently, proponents of the acceptance-based behavior therapy movement have further emphasized the importance of acceptance-based emotion regulation techniques. In order to directly compare these different emotion regulation strategies, 202 volunteers were asked to give an impromptu speech in front of a video camera. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups. The Reappraisal group was instructed to regulate their anxious arousal by reappraising the situation; the Suppression group was asked to suppress their anxious behaviors; and the Acceptance group was instructed to accept their anxiety. As expected, the Suppression group showed a greater increase in heart rate from baseline than the Reappraisal and Acceptance groups. Moreover, the Suppression group reported more anxiety than the Reappraisal group. However, the Acceptance and Suppression groups did not differ in their subjective anxiety response. These results suggest that both reappraising and accepting anxiety is more effective for moderating the physiological arousal than suppressing anxiety. However, reappraising is more effective for moderating the subjective feeling of anxiety than attempts to suppress or accept it.     

Drinking and Driving: Perceptions and Evaluations as a Function of Level of Intoxication and Weather

Over the past decade, drinking and driving has been a major social problem causing deaths and injuries. The present study examined factors that may encourage this potentially self-destructive behavior. Three hundred and seventy-eight subjects were presented with scenarios describing a night of drinking with friends. Scenarios differed with respect to three levels of intoxication (not at all, slight, and very) and two levels of weather (clear and rain). Subjects were asked to estimate the proportion of their peers who would drive home or choose an alternative form of transportation. Subjects were also asked to evaluate the target who drove home or took an alternative in terms of likability, cautiousness, skillfulness and independence. Driving home was found to be the most common mode of transportation, regardless of state of drunkenness or weather conditions. Alternatives to driving home were seen as being utilized only under extreme conditions (e.g., very intoxicated and rainy weather). Moreover, persons taking one of the more cautious alternatives were perceived as overly cautious and also low in skillfulness. The practical implications for the findings are discussed with respect to enhancing education efforts.     

A state of high anxiety: how non‐supportive interviewers can increase the suggestibility of child witnesses

The present study examined the effects of state and trait anxiety on 8–11 years old children's susceptibility to misleading post‐event information. Participants' state and trait anxiety were measured, after which they watched an extract from a children's movie. They were then individually interviewed using either a supportive or a non‐supportive style. During the interviews, the children were asked 14 questions about the movie, seven of which were control and seven contained misleading information. After the interview, their state anxiety was measured again. Results showed that participants interviewed in a non‐supportive style were more likely to provide incorrect answers to misleading questions. Furthermore, participants who scored highly on both trait and post‐interview state anxiety measures more often responded incorrectly to misleading questions. Also, pre‐to post‐interview changes in state anxiety were correlated with more incorrect responses to misleading questions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The false consensus effect: A meta-analysis of 115 hypothesis tests

False consensus refers to an egocentric bias that occurs when people estimate consensus for their own behaviors. Specifically, the false consensus hypothesis holds that people who engage in a given behavior will estimate that behavior to be more common than it is estimated to be by people who engage in alternative behaviors. A meta-analysis was conducted upon 115 tests of this hypothesis. The combined effects of the tests of the false consensus hypothesis were highly statistically significant and of moderate magnitude. Further, the 115 tests of false consensus appear to be relatively heterogeneous in terms of significance levels and effect sizes. Correlational analyses and focused comparisons indicate that the false consensus effect does not appear to be influenced by the generality of the reference population, nor by the difference between alternative choices in actual consensus. However, the significance and magnitude of the false consensus effect was significantly predicted by the number of behavioral choices/estimates subjects had to make, and the sequence of measurement of choices and estimates. These patterns of results are interpreted as being inconsistent with the self-presentational, motivational explanation for the false consensus effect.     

Differential effects of performance demand and distraction on sexually functional and dysfunctional males

Sexually functional and sexually dysfunctional male subjects viewed an erotic film while experiencing two different types of distraction. During a neutral distracting condition, subjects were asked to estimate the length and width of a straight line appearing on an adjacent video monitor. During the "performance demand" distraction condition, subjects viewed video feedback of their genital responses and were asked to estimate percentage of full erection. These conditions were compared to a no distraction control condition. Performance demand distraction significantly elevated the responding of functional subjects compared to the neutral distraction condition. The responding of dysfunctional subjects, on the other hand, decreased during the performance demand distraction and was significantly lower than arousal in functional subjects in this condition. Post hoc analyses examined possible cognitive and affective mediating factors of this differential response.     

Anxiety buffer disruption theory: a terror management account of posttraumatic stress disorder

We present anxiety buffer disruption theory (ABDT) and provide a review of current evidence regarding the theory. ABDT is an application of terror management theory to explain diverse reactions to traumatic events and the onset and maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It posits that PTSD results from a disruption in one's anxiety-buffering mechanisms, which normally provide protection against anxiety in general and death anxiety in particular. The disruption of these mechanisms leaves the individual defenseless in the face of overwhelming anxiety, which leads to the major symptom clusters of PTSD: re-experiencing, hyper-arousal, and avoidance. According to ABDT, because of the disruption in their anxiety-buffering mechanisms, individuals with PTSD symptoms do not respond to mortality reminders in the defensive ways that psychologically healthier individuals do. We review four sets of studies conducted in four different cultures and with people who have experienced different types of trauma, which reveal this atypical response pattern and lend support to ABDT.     

A longitudinal study of the development of anticipatory nausea and vomiting in cancer chemotherapy patients: the role of absorption and autonomic perception.

We interviewed 70 cancer patients receiving chemotherapy at home before their second treatment session to obtain baseline measures of absorption, autonomic perception, depression, state-trait anxiety, and basic demographic information. Patients were then interviewed before each of their next six treatment sessions, at which time measures of depression, state anxiety, severity and duration of postchemotherapy nausea and/or vomiting (PCNV), and experience of anticipatory nausea and/or vomiting (ANV) were obtained. Previous findings suggesting that motion sickness, trait anxiety, depression, sex of subject, and age are predictors of the development of ANV were not replicated. Patients with ANV did score significantly higher on measures of absorption and autonomic perception than patients who did not develop ANV. Those variables hypothesized to mediate conditioning (i.e., toxicity of treatment drugs, severity of PCNV, levels of state anxiety) accurately predicted which patients developed ANV. Absorption and autonomic perception added significantly to the prediction.     

Estimating group size: effects of category membership,differential construal and selective exposure

The present study investigates the role of category membership, differential construal and selective exposure in consensus estimation concerning a relatively involving social categorization, namely religion. Christians, differing in their degree of religious involvement, and non-believers were asked to estimate the percentage of Christians in the general population. Respondents were expected to construe the general category of Christians differentially as a function of their own (religious) behaviours. These differential construals were expected to mediate respondents' estimates. Further, selective exposure, i.e. the religious behaviours of friends and relatives, was expected to affect the estimates. Results show a negative relationship between religious involvement and the estimated percentage of Christians, indicating a False Uniqueness Effect. As predicted, estimates were mediated by respondents' construal of the general category; involved Christians construed this category in more narrow terms than did the other two groups and that construal was related to lower consensus estimates. Further, selective exposure was positively related to consensus estimates. Thus, construal processes and selective exposure had opposing effects on respondents' consensus estimates.     

Induced false memories of having heard the unspoken: a demonstration.

In a mock public survey situation, many students who had been led to expect to be asked to name their academic majors or home towns later declared that they had been asked for that information even though they had not. Such illusory memories were even more common among subjects who had spontaneously volunteered the unasked-for information during the interview. Both results have important implications for reality-monitoring processes and errors.     

Maternal recollected anxiety and mother–infant interaction in preterm infants

This study focused on the relationship between maternal recollected anxiety and the quality of mother–preterm infant interaction. In a observational study, 52 mothers and their preterm infants were videotaped at home in a standardized object–play interaction situation, at the infant's age of 6 months. Observations concentrated on different aspects of maternal behavior, including sensitive responsiveness, involvement, level of activity, and intrusiveness. Mothers were interviewed about their experiences during the period of neonatal intensive care and were, on the basis of their answers, divided into high‐anxiety and low‐anxiety mothers. In general, and independent of the infant's current interactive behavior and medical status, high‐anxiety mothers were more intrusive and more active during interaction with their infants than were mothers who recalled little or no anxiety during the postnatal period. ©1999 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Children and chess expertise: The role of calibration

Summary Three studies of calibration are reported. Calibration refers to the accuracy with which one can predict one's own performance. In the first study child chess players, non-chess playing parents, and statistics students were asked to predict chances of winning chess games against hypothetical opponents. These subjective probabilities were compared to the actual probabilities, based on the Elo rating system. Better players' predictions were better calibrated. Confidence and ratings are negatively correlated, indicating that with lower ratings, players are overconfident. Skilled child players' predictions were better calibrated than any of the adults'. In the second study subjects were asked to estimate chances of winning in conjunctive situations, e. g., winning all the rounds in a tournament. Again, better child players were more accurate in their predictions and more accurate than adults. In the third study, child players were asked to predict their chances of winning in a non-chess domain after hearing a hypothetical win/loss history. Higher-rated players' predictions were again better calibrated, even though the domain was outside their expertise. The motivational and cognitive implications of calibration are discussed.     

Perceptions of the magnitude and diversity of social support

Three studies were conducted to test the hypotheses that subjects would overestimate the proportion of their peers who shared their opinion on an issue and that they would perceive their own opinion group as consisting of people with a wider and more diverse range of values and outlooks than those holding different opinions. The first study was conducted following a period of intense debate about sixism on a college campus. Subjects estimated student opinion on issues related to sexism and indicated how diverse or similar they perceived supporters and nonsupporters of the women's movement to be. In a second study subjects estimated the proportion of students who evaluated President Carter's performance as good, fair, or poor and then indicated how diverse or similar the three groups of students were who held these various opinions. A third study closely replicated the second, using the issue of divestiture of college-owned stock in South Africa. In all three studies, subjects were divided into groups on the basis of their own attitudes. Results consistently supported the hypotheses.     

Where did I park? A naturalistic study of spatial memory

A naturalistic study of spatial memory having temporary utility was conducted using 32 faculty and staff of a university, who park in non-reserved parking spaces, as subjects. The subjects, who were unaware of the study until interviewed, were asked to indicate on a map the exact location where they had parked their car on that day and on each of the three preceding days. Whereas retention accuracy decreased significantly across days, the recency effect was weak and overall retention proved to be very accurate. Of the subjects who varied their parking location, 88 per cent were able to indicate within three spaces where they parked on the day of the interview, and 58 per cent on the most remote day. Younger females made significantly larger retention errors across the four days than older females and younger and older males. Subjects' overall retention accuracy correlated with their overall confidence in their recollections (γ = .72). Daily ratings of ‘how busy on the job’, reported times left campus each day, parking location variability, particular parking lot used, and number of parking spaces in the distinct locations used were not significantly correlated with retention errors. In follow-up interviews, subjects reported preferring a behavioural, ‘park in a favourite spot’ strategy, with several types of imagery-based cognitive strategies being cited less frequently, and verbal encoding being the least often cited strategy.     

In search of the false-uniqueness phenomenon: fear and estimates of social consensus

An examination of the social perception literature yields little evidence for the false-uniqueness phenomenon (Valins & Nisbett, 1972), the perception that one's attributes are more unique than is the case. In contrast, the tendency for individuals to project their own characteristics onto other people and assume that more people are like themselves is a robust phenomenon. One reason researchers may not have found false uniqueness is that they have not looked at the accuracy of consensus estimates. A close look at the results of Tabachnik, Crocker, and Alloy (1983) and Sanders and Mullen (1983), who did assess accuracy, suggests that people possessing undesirable attributes over-estimate consensus, whereas people holding desirable attributes underestimate consensus. The latter pattern is a form of false uniqueness. In this study we looked at the accuracy of social consensus estimates in the context of psychological fears. A sample of subjects filled out an abbreviated version of a fear survey and made estimates of consensus. The results showed that both high- and low-fear respondents overestimated the incidence of high fear among their peers, but high-fear subjects were more inaccurate in their estimates. A false-uniqueness effect was found on the part of low-fear subjects, as they tended to underestimate the incidence of low fear among their peers. These findings are consistent with a motivational interpretation that emphasizes the individual's need to justify or normalize stigmatized behavior and to bolster perceived self-competence.     

The effectiveness of a joint mother–daughter sexual health program for Latina early adolescents

A culturally and cognitively adapted joint mother–daughter sexual health and HIV transmission curriculum was implemented for 96 Latina early adolescents and their mothers (48 mother–daughter dyads). Pretest and posttest surveys, interviews, and observations of participants' conversations about AIDS were used to assess program effectiveness in increasing knowledge and communication about sexuality and HIV transmission, and fostering daughters' positive attitudes toward using condoms in the future. At posttest, mothers and daughters reported an increase in the frequency of home communication about sexual topics and openness in general communication. Systematic observational analysis of videotaped mother–daughter conversations about AIDS revealed that, compared to the pretest, daughters were more engaged in posttest conversations as evidenced by an increase in their spontaneous sharing of information about HIV transmission and their offering of opinions. In addition, the posttest conversations focused on a broader discussion of HIV transmission risk behavior including condom use as a protective measure. Mothers who knew more about HIV transmission at posttest, and who reported more openness in general communication with daughters at posttest, asked their daughters more questions in the conversations about what they had learned in the program. Daughters who contributed more information and opinions to the posttest conversations, who were more knowledgeable about HIV transmission at posttest, and who reported more home communication about sexual topics in the posttest, also reported more positive attitudes toward using condoms in the future.