Attributions, false consensus and valence: two field studies

Two studies, with 1,056 Ss, investigated attitudes, knowledge, and behavior with regard to several environmental issues. Findings demonstrate that observers tend to perceive a false consensus with respect to the relative commonness of their own behavioral choices. This phenomenon was replicated across a variety of behaviors. This bias was not related, however, to Ss' trait inferences of the typical person who would choose a particular alternative. Neither estimated commonness of responses nor Ss' own behavioral choice provided an adequate explanation of the obtained differences in attributional inferences. Results show that Ss made more extreme and confident trait ratings about evaluatively positive behavior, irrespective of their own behavioral choice. Ss' trait ratings were in accordance with L. Ross's (1977) proposal, that Ss make more extreme ratings about dissimilar others, only when Ss rated their own behavioral choice relatively unfavorably compared with the behavi! oral alternative. Implications for previous investigations dealing with the false consensus effect are outlined, and evaluative and motivational mechanisms are proposed for research on social inference and attributional processes.