Alone in a Crowd of Sheep: Asymmetric Perceptions of Conformity and Their Roots in an Introspection Illusion

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Penn collection
Marketing Papers
Degree type
Discipline
Subject
conformity
social influence
self-perception
introspection illusion
actor-observer
Business
Cognition and Perception
Cognitive Psychology
Community Psychology
Interpersonal and Small Group Communication
Marketing
Social Influence and Political Communication
Social Psychology
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
Distributor
Related resources
Author
Pronin, Emily
Berger, Jonah A
Molouki, Sarah
Contributor
Abstract

The results of 5 studies showed that people see others as more conforming than themselves. This asymmetry was found to occur in domains ranging from consumer purchases to political views. Participants claimed to be less susceptible than their average peers to broad descriptions of social influences, and they also claimed to be less susceptible than specific peers to specific instances of conformity. These studies further demonstrated that this asymmetry is not simply the result of social desirability, but it is also rooted in people's attention to introspective versus behavioral information when making conformity assessments. The participants displayed an introspection illusion, placing more weight on introspective evidence of conformity (relative to behavioral evidence) when judging their own susceptibility to social influence as opposed to someone else's. Implications for self–other asymmetries, implicit social influence, and interpersonal conflict are discussed.

Advisor
Date Range for Data Collection (Start Date)
Date Range for Data Collection (End Date)
Digital Object Identifier
Series name and number
Publication date
2007-04-01
Volume number
Issue number
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Journal Issue
Comments
Recommended citation
Collection