Can Biases in Perceived Attitudes Explain Anti-Conformism?

Abstract

In two studies about farming practices, the respondents who are particularly favorable to organic farming tend to have a higher intention to convert their farm to organic when they perceive other farmers as not very favorable to this practice. This intention can be considered as anticonformist, as it is in opposition to the general view of others. This article hypothesizes that this phenomenon can be explained by some biases on the perceptions of attitudes. It proposes an agent-based model which computes an intention based on the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and assumes some biases in the perception of others' attitudes according to the social judgment theory. It investigates the conditions on the model parameter values for which the simulations reproduce the features observed in the studies. The results show that perceptual biases are a possible explanation of anticonformist intentions.

Understanding individual and collective response to climate change: The role of a self-other mismatch

“…They find that perceived group norms (PGNs, which focus on attitudes of others) interact more with participants’ attitudes than subjective norms (norms that focus on ‘important’ others) do. This can be due to the fact that there is a bigger perception bias for perceived group norms than for subjective norms ( Deffuant et al, 2022 ): people tend to perceive others’ far attitudes (PGN) further than they actually are and close attitudes closer to theirs than they really are. This is less the case for subjective norms.…”

“…The classic hypothesis for PBC would be that perceiving low behavioural control would reduce the beneficial effect of a ‘self-other’ difference on individual pro-environmental intentions (see Ajzen and Schmidt, 2020 for a review). But a recent study conducted by Khamzina et al (2021) , see also Deffuant et al (2022) shows that the mismatch effect only influences peoples’ behaviour with low PBC—as if high PBC sufficed in motivating action but when perceived control is low, other factors need to come into play. These results concur with other studies ( Guagnano et al, 1995 ) that show that attitudes predict behaviour less when behaviour is easily feasible.…”

“… Khamzina et al (2021) , see also Deffuant et al (2022) call this interaction effect and its predictions “the mismatch hypothesis.” The first central idea in this hypothesis is that the mismatch between perceived social norms and personal attitudes can be a source of motivation to have high intentions to act pro-environmentally—notably when the individual perceived their personal attitude to be in favour of the behaviour but not the social norm. In a series of studies, Khamzina et al (2021) effectively confirm this hypothesis: intentions to convert to organic farming were significantly higher when the farmers’ attitudes and perceived social norms were mismatched (with the personal attitude being in favour and perceived norms being against), compared to the other possibilities.…”

“…Therefore, some researchers have hypothesized that people sometimes share their dissident opinion and that minorities can significantly influence opinions ( Moscovici et al, 1969 ; Moscovici, 1991 ). Others have also suggested that observing a difference between one’s personal attitude and perceived social norms is the starting point and can make us stand more strongly in our position and not conform to social norms ( Khamzina et al, 2021 ; Deffuant et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Thus, part of climate change mitigation has now started to include research on what motivates these behaviours and how social change can occur. In this article, we empirically test the mismatch model ( Khamzina et al, 2021 ; Deffuant et al, 2022 ) to explain what can motivate individuals to act pro-environmentally on a group and individual level, and participate in normative change.…”