Ten years of research on the false-consensus effect: An empirical and theoretical review.

1987/07/01 by Gary Marks, Norman Miller · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Misinformation and Its Impacts #Climate Change Communication and Perception

paper · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.102.1.72

openalex publication_date 1987/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Ten years of research on the false-consensus effect (Ross, Greene, & House, 1977) and related biases in social perception (e.g., assumed similarity and overestimation of consensus) are examined in the light of four general theoretical perspectives: (a) selective exposure and cognitive availability,

Citations

• Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability
• False Consensus and False Uniqueness in Estimating the Prevalence of Health‐Protective Behaviors
• Attitudes and Cognitive Organization
• The “false consensus effect”: An egocentric bias in social perception and attribution processes
• The attribution of attitudes
• A Theory of Social Comparison Processes
• What is beautiful is good.

Cited by

• False consensus effect [wikipedia]
• List of cognitive biases [wikipedia]