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.     

Intellectual functioning and aggression

In a 22-year study, data were collected on aggressiveness and intellectual functioning in more than 600 subjects, their parents, and their children. Both aggression and intellectual functioning are reasonably stable in a subject's lifetime and perpetuate themselves across generations and within marriage pairs. Aggression in childhood was shown to interfere with the development of intellectual functioning and to be predictive of poorer intellectual achievement as an adult. Early IQ was related to early subject aggression but did not predict changes in aggression after age 8. On the other hand, differences between early IQ and intellectual achievement in middle adulthood were predictable from early aggressive behavior. A dual-process model was offered to explain the relation between intellectual functioning and aggressive behavior. We hypothesized that low intelligence makes the learning of aggressive responses more likely at an early age, and this aggressive behavior makes continued intellectual development more difficult.     

Linking person and context in the daily stress process

In this study we combined daily diary data with interview data to investigate individual differences in the impact of stressful daily events on mood. Using a sample of 96 women in an urban community, we examined perceived neighborhood quality and major life events as possibly potentiating the effects of stressful daily events, and we viewed social supports as potentially buffering this daily process. Results confirmed that the presence of chronic ecologic stress (neighborhood perceptions) exacerbated the immediate effects of stressful daily events on mood and also increased the likelihood of enduring effects of daily stressors on next day's mood. Contrary to expectations, previous exposure to major life events decreased the impact of stressful daily events. The availability of social supports, although not buffering the impact of stressful daily events on mood, did mitigate the enduring effects of these events on next day's mood. This study also presents a method for analyzing daily time-series data, while correcting for potential problems of autocorrelated error terms. As such, this study represents a significant advance over previous analytic approaches to time-series data in the study of the stress process.     

Prevalence of weight reducing and weight gaining in adolescent girls and boys

This is a survey of the prevalence of weight reducing and weight gaining in high school children. Our sample of 1,373 high school girls and boys was geographically, racially, and economically diverse. On the day of the survey, 63% of the girls and 16.2% of the boys reported being on weight reducing regimens; 9.1% of the girls and 28.4% of the boys were trying to gain weight. Most female reducers and male gainers were already normal weight. Compared to other racial groups, whites and Hispanics were more likely to be reducing, whereas blacks were more likely to be gaining. Exercise and moderate caloric reduction were most popular for weight reducing, and a small but significant number were regularly using fasting, vomiting, laxatives, and appetite suppressants. The direction of weight modification for girls and boys conformed to stereotyped physical ideals. The rate of weight reducing in female high school adolescents has increased significantly since similar surveys of American youths 20 years ago.     

Cognitive maps as orienting schemata

A "point-to-unseen-targets" task was used to test two theories about the nature of cognitive mapping. The hypothesis that a cognitive map is like a "picture in the head" predicts that (a) the cognitive map should have a preferred orientation and (b) all coded locations should be equally available. These predictions were confirmed in Experiments 1 and 3 when targets were cities in the northeastern United States and learning was from a map. The theory that a cognitive map is an orienting schema predicts that the cognitive map should have no preferred orientation and that targets in front of the body should be localized faster than targets behind the body. These predictions were confirmed in Experiments 1 and 2 when targets were local landmarks that had been learned via direct experience. In Experiment 3, when cities in the Northeast were targets and geographical knowledge had been acquired, in part, by traveling in the Northeast, the observed latency profiles were not as predicted by either theory of cognitive mapping. The results suggest that orienting schemata direct orientation with respect to local environments, but that orientation with respect to large geographical regions is supported by a different type of cognitive structure.