Year: 1985
Type: article
Abstract: Accurate representation of the distribution of social attitudes and behaviors can guide effective social behavior and is often essential for correct inferences.We examined the accuracy of people's beliefs about the distributions of a large number of attitudinal and behavioral dimensions.In two studies we measured actual attitudes and behaviors in a student population, and we assessed beliefs by asking subjects to estimate the distribution of 100 students on these dimensions.We examined the accuracy of subjects' perceptions of the means, standard deviations, and distribution shapes.Subjects showed a number of systematic biases, including overestimation of dispersion and overestimation of the means of behavioral distributions and a false consensus bias, but their overall accuracy was impressive.
Authors: Nisbett, Richard E., Kunda, Ziva
Institutions: University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4301698195