Overview
In Ross, Greene and House (1977), students asked to wear an “Eat at Joe’s” sandwich board predicted that most peers would make the same choice they did, whichever it was. Causes include selective exposure, motivation and treating one’s construal as obvious. The opposite for abilities is the false uniqueness effect. See spotlight effect.
Frequently asked questions
- How to reduce it?
- Check representative data and diverse views.
References
- Ross, L., Greene, D., & House, P. (1977). The “false consensus effect”: An egocentric bias in social perception and attribution processes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 13(3), 279–301.
- Mullen, B., et al. (1985). The false consensus effect: A meta-analysis of 115 hypothesis tests. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 21(3), 262–283.
