SELECTIVE EXPOSURE AND THE FALSE CONSENSUS EFFECT - THE AVAILABILITY OF SIMILAR AND DISSIMILAR OTHERS

Selective exposure to a biased sample of others is supposed to play an important role in explaining the false consensus effect (FCE). Select ive exposure is generally assessed by asking subjects to estimate the prevalence of certain behaviours among their friends. We argue that th is measure may easily lead to erroneous conclusions about the mediatin g role of friends' positions, since subjects are also likely to overes timate the prevalence of their own responses in a sample of friends. I n the presence study a process tracing task was used in which subjects were asked to think aloud when estimating the prevalence of specific opinions about 20 issues. Three predictions were tested. First, subjec ts were expected to refer to similar others more often than to dissimi lar others. Second, referring to similar others was expected to lead t o larger FCEs. Third, referring to dissimilar others was expected to l ead to smaller FCEs. Results provided direct evidence of selective exp osure, but this was most pronounced for issues for which opinions were relatively heterogeneous, i.e. for which there was no clear majority or minority opinion. The availability of similar others was further sh own to be associated with larger FCEs, whereas the availability of dis similar others was associated with smaller FCEs.