Prejudiced People Perceive More Community Support for Their Views: The Role of Own, Media, and Peer Attitudes in Perceived Consensus

Abstract

People often overestimate others' support for their views (false consensus effect). Recent research has shown that this is particularly marked in the relation between perceived consensus and prejudice. The current research asked whether this partly arises in an in‐group stereotype of the community as prejudiced. We investigated relations between different sources of normative information (self, media, peers), estimates of community attitudes, and perceived consensus in a sample of 135 community members. Media prejudice predicted community attitudes, and this further predicted consensus. However, strongest was a direct relation between own prejudice and perceived consensus. The results indicate a desire to appear nonprejudiced, relative to others. Confronting prejudiced people with information about community norms is a promising intervention under these circumstances.

Bystander Anti-Racism: A Review of the Literature

“…The public intolerance of racist behavior can have a vital contextual effect on subsequent acts of racism, but also on attitudes. Watt and Larkin (2010) found that higher levels of prejudice are associated with increased false consensus effects, such that highly prejudiced individuals overestimate support for their racist views to a greater extent than less prejudiced individuals. People who perceive themselves to be in the majority are more forthright in expressing racist opinions, less prepared to compromise, and less likely to modify their views, than those who perceive themselves to be in the minority (Watt & Larkin, 2010).…”

“…Watt and Larkin (2010) found that higher levels of prejudice are associated with increased false consensus effects, such that highly prejudiced individuals overestimate support for their racist views to a greater extent than less prejudiced individuals. People who perceive themselves to be in the majority are more forthright in expressing racist opinions, less prepared to compromise, and less likely to modify their views, than those who perceive themselves to be in the minority (Watt & Larkin, 2010). Public condemnation through bystander anti‐racism can potentially combat “false consensus effects” that result from individuals overestimating general community support for their racist views (Pedersen, Walker, Paradies, & Guerin, 2011).…”

Can We Make a Difference? Prejudice Towards Asylum Seekers in Australia and the Effectiveness of Antiprejudice Interventions

“…These views are not accurate; research finds that non-prejudiced people are more likely to able to accurately estimate the level of support of their opinion in the community . This finding has been replicated across other cultural groups; for example, Indigenous Australians (Watt & Larkin, 2010), and with regard to asylum seeker policy (Hartley & Pedersen, 2006). Another study found a positive relationship between prejudice and perceived cultural norms to reduce the number of asylum seekers (Louis, Duck, Terry, Schuller, & Lalonde, 2007).…”

Perceptions of behavioral norms related to HIV transmission by people with HIV and by residents of their communities

“…We believe this effort was worthwhile because, while there is considerable evidence that social norms influence the expression of prejudice (Crandall & Eshleman, 2003; Gervais, 2011; Sechrist & Stangor, 2011; Watt & Larkin, 2010), there is little empirical evidence about how stigmatized people may be affected by the social ecologies in which they live. The present study indicates that community approval for behaviors associated with members of a stigmatized group may set the stage for perceived stigmatization by people in that stigmatized group.…”