Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

There are several definitions of pluralistic ignorance – in the fields of psychology, sociology, and communications the term is not used uniformly. But despite the differences in details, they all share a focus on the same phenomenon: the inaccuracy with which most people perceive or judge →  public opinion or at least the distribution of opinions in social groups (→  Social Perception ). The term was first coined by Allport & Katz in 1931 to describe situations where individuals make unfounded assumptions (and act on the basis of these assumptions) as to how others in their peer group will think, feel, or act ( Allport & Katz 1931 , 152). Later, Allport (1933) used the term to describe a situation in which members of a group who believed themselves to be in the minority were actually in the majority. Allport did not emphasize the relationship of the term to the concept of public opinion; he focused much more on social groups and the behavioral component of the idea. He argued that members of a social group usually perceive the norms of the group by observing the public behavior of others. If this behavior is discrepant to the individual norms or attitudes of the observing group member, he or she tends to believe that the norm discrepancy is his or her individual problem whereas he or she believes that nearly all other group members show this behavior because it is in ... log in or subscribe to read full text