In the research, the students were presented with identical surveys and were unaware of the psychological topic of the survey; therefore, the results were reliable. Overall, 60.5% of the participants believed that others would make the same choices as they did, according to Graph 1.1. The results from the first, third and fourth scenario all strengthened the theory of false consensus effect. Only data from the second scenario rejected the theory as merely 30.9% of the participants predicted that most people would choose the same option as they did, based on Table 1.1. Therefore, the majority of the results approved the hypothesis that people were unconsciously influenced by the false consensus effect. The differing responses between upperclassmen …show more content…
and underclassmen were examined in Graphs 1.2 and 1.3. Graph 1.2 demonstrated that 40.0% of upperclassmen expected different responses from other people, whereas 34.8% of lowerclassmen predicted different opinions from others, 5.2% lower than the upperclassmen. Because of the unusual data from scenario two, Graph 1.3 was created to show the relationship among each grade more clearly. Evidently, Graph 1.3 showed that participants from ninth grade to twelfth grade gradually predicted more different opinions from others. The results supported the hypothesis that stronger bias existed among lowerclassmen than upperclassmen. The reason behind could be understood as that with the increase of age of the participants, more participants developed theory of minds, which was the ability to perceive events from an opposite point of view. With regards to the difference due to gender, the data in Table 1.2 did not provide convincing evidence that boys performed more false consensus bias than girls.
The percentage of boys estimating consensus was 63.78%, which was slightly higher than the percentage of girls--60.71%. The 3.07% was consistent with the hypothesis, but it was too minor to prove the validness of the hypothesis. Nevertheless, it was noticeable that the percentage of the estimated consensus for boys in every scenario was above 50%, while the lowest percentage of the false consensus is 38.10% created by girls in the second scenario. The hypothesis was formulated based on the research of the level of self-esteem for females and males, but the self-esteem level was not evaluated in this research because of its complexity and abstractness. Thus, the future research should integrate accurate measurement of self-esteem to test the correlation between false consensus bias and self-esteem of females and males. Withdrawing a larger sample with equal gender distribution would also be an approach for more precise …show more content…
results. The four scenarios were specially designed for the sample: they were all dilemmas commonly existed in adolescents’ life.
In this way, the participants had clear idea about the consequence of each choice so that they would make more insightful decisions. In addition, the sample covered every grade level of high school students and gender with relatively equal distribution. However, the sample were all drawn from students in Xavier High School, which was a biased group, and the situation might differ in other schools. Also, high school students did not represent the whole population of teenagers. Therefore, performing the research with more diversified sample would be necessary for future research to explore the false consensus effect. This research only examined the generality of the false consensus effect; the reasons behind it were not yet investigated. Future research can further the study by looking for the possible causes of the false consensus
effect. From the results of the research, it was important for the society to realize that people were “self-centered”, and the contradictory view was unconsciously overlooked. The false consensus effect could help people to react more rationally when the results of some events did not match their expectations. In particular, people might acknowledge the result of the president election better if they recognized that their assumptions about the other half of the population were not always accurate. Also, even though the false consensus bias are usually performed out of awareness in our brain (Uleman & Bargh 1989), the increasing recognition of the concept can help people to understand that their point of views do not usually represent the majority. In general, the research addressed the biased judgments people tended to make based on their own perception. It provided evidence for the existence of the false consensus effect among high school students. The decline of the false consensus bias with ages were
It often leads to people adjusting responses to stimuli just because they believe that if everyone else has the same response they must have it too. This is shown in "Asch Experiment" after McLeod explained how the dot of light never moved, he mentioned, "The participants are then asked to estimate how far the dot of light moves. These estimates are made out loud, and with repeated trials, each group of three converges on an estimate. The main finding of the study was that groups found their own "social norm" of perception." (McLeod 2) This shows that when placed in an environment where some people have a different opinion than others, the popular opinion takes over and everyone's opinion becomes uniform because people doubt themselves when they are alone on an opinion, leading to conformity. People in environments like this should try to keep their own opinions as to prevent the spread of conformity when uniqueness is
Brannon, Linda. "Chapter 7 Gender Stereotypes: Masculinity and Femininity." Gender: Psychological Perspectives. 4th ed. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2005. 159-83. Print.
The most basic concept in social psychology is conformity. Conformity is the idea that behaviour or a belief is changed in order to follow, or conform, to what is considered the “norm.” One of the oldest experiments to support this notion was conducted in 1935 by Muzafer Sherif (Song, Ma, Wu, Li, 2012 p. 1366). There are two different types of
Asch, Solomon E. "Studies of Independence and Conformity: I. A Minority of One against a Unanimous Majority." Psychological Monographs: General and Applied 70.9 (1956): 1. Print.
However, when a control group was asked to write down answers separately and without having to voice them, 98% of the responses were correct. The supremacy of conformity was certainly present in Asch’s experiment. Two majorly crucial outcomes emerged from Asch’s research that transformed the field of psychology. First, the power of conformism had been officially and scientifically proven. Second, many other psychologists and scientists became motivated to continue experimenting with conformity.
The astute reader may notice that this review does not include any papers that did not find a false consensus effect. The reason for this is not that this paper is not representative of the literature, but rather, that it is. The uniformity of the literature suggests that the phenomenon is fairly common. Some interesting arguments as to why this is are motivational or cognitive in nature. The motivational premise is based in the idea that people are motivated to believe that they have a place in their social environment. This argument is a based in self-justification, in that if many people share a given belief or behavior, it makes it easier to justify that this attitude or behavior is either right, or not as bad as it might seem.
Solomon Asch’s experiment in “Opinions and Social Pressure” studied a subject’s ability to yield to social pressure when placed within a group of strangers. His research helped illustrate how groups encourage conformity. During a typical experiment, members of the group were asked by the experimenter to claim two obvious mismatched lines were identical. The single individual who was not privy to this information was the focal point of the experiment. Twelve out of eighteen times the unsuspecting individual went along with the majority, dispelling his beliefs in favor of the opinions of the group.
The researchers, Timothy Judge and Daniel Cable, say that much of the problem is the result of subconscious decisions based on entrenched social
In the experiment, the group of individuals that were heavily influenced that their judgement was poor had no choice but to join the group’s decision despite having opposing views. Similarly, Eric Forman had to stop attending his disco roller-skating events because his friend group was totally against it. Lastly, Varun ended up telling his girlfriend he cheated because his respect from the group was on the line. All in all, this theory that people have to listen to other individual’s opinions to grade their worth has become obvious through these
Despite the fact of strong gender stereotypes, I think that as our world is becoming advance every day, the concept of gender stereotypes is gradu...
tendency could also be to the other extreme; that decisions could shift to a more cautious judgment. Group polarization is an important phenomenon to study because it is relevant to our everyday lives. When people with similar opinions begin to talk about an issue, conflicts can increase because of the intensity of opinions. Group interaction is in our daily lives, thus it is extremely important to understand group polarization in order to understand and avoid dangerous situations. There are three theories that explain this principal: the persuasive arguments theory, the social comparison theory, and the social identity theory. The persuasive arguments theory generally states that group polarization results from an exchange of information, ideas, or facts among group members, thus providing each member more support for his or her position in the form of new ideas and arguments. Group members’ opinions will change if they are exposed to a variety of different opinions assuming it fits into the person’s preexisting opinions and how logical the information represents reality. The social comparison theory generally states that people change their opinions in order to conform to the social norms of the group. This theory compares self with others and a desire for acceptance. If group members find out others have the same opinions, they will usually intensify their views. People want to be socially accepted so they will constantly try to present themselves favorable to others. People do not only want to be accepted, but also want to be perceived more favorable than the other group members. This leads to group members altering opinions to better each other, thus leading to a more positive or negative outcome than would have happened individually. The social identity theory states that there are three steps to group polarization. The first step involves social categorization, this occurs when a person sees him/herself and others into diverse social groups. The second step is after this categorization people determine the characteristic qualities of each group, thus the third step of polarizing and each member adopts the stereotyped attributes of the group.
How do other people influence our behaviour? The public may influence our behaviour though social influence in two different ways, the first is normative influence which is “an influence to conform to the positive expectations of others” (Cohen 1964). This is shown by Asch where the participant’s task was to compare the length of the lines by matching the standard line with three comparisons, one of which was clearly obvious the correct answer this is known as an unambiguous task. Asch found that when the majority of the confederate said the wrong answer the minority who was the participant also gave the wrong answer knowing it wasn’t correct (Asch 1956) this shows how they changed their answer to fit in with the group even when they knew the answer they was giving was incorrect. This can be applied to behaviours being influenced by others as people may go along with the group and behave the same way they do even if it’s seen to be frowned upon just to fit in.
Some boys around the age of seven, are reported to believe that their male peers are better at math than fellow female students. As for girls at this age, believe that both male and female students are equally capable in math, until the age of 10. This is where female students begin to believe that males students are better in the math areas. However, during adolescence years, boys begin to agree that girls and boys are equally good at math, as girls continue to state males are more successful in math (Saucerman and
Several factors affect conformity. The larger the group, the more likely people are to conform, although this effect levels off at around seven group members. If there is even one dissenter in a group other than the participant, conformity drops dramatically. If the participant is in face-to-face contact with the group, he or she is more likely to conform. And finally, the more ambiguous the solution to the problem, the more likely the participant is to conform to others’ opinions (McLeod,
Women are starting to increase their self esteem. According to Lindsey (2015) “girls tend to retain their sense of self-esteem despite negative messages” (p. 360). Some girls do not allow others opinions to affect what she thinks of herself. For instance, when a stranger is trying to criticize a woman’s beliefs, appearance, or intelligence she will be upset, because she does not agree. More simply, some women are used to people thinking or speaking negatively about them, so they often believe in themselves. Some women do not allow strangers to have an impact on their self esteem, because it is not a personal relationship. In addition, women often surrounded themselves by others who are confident, motivated, inspired, and comfortable with themselves, because it will help build their self esteem. Overall, women should believe in themselves and be