THE 3RD PERSON EFFECT - SOCIAL DISTANCE AND PERCEIVED MEDIA BIAS

Two studies were conducted to determine the conditions under which the third person effect (Davison, 1983) operates. It was hypothesized tha t the effect would be accentuated as target groups of others became mo re remote from the self A second objective was to determine whether th e effect operates in the absence of overtly persuasive intent in the m edia. Television programmes concerned with moral themes were employed as stimuli. The results further support Davison's claim that overestim ation of media effects is greater when people imagine the responses of others whom they do not know than those of familar individuals. The r esults also indicate that the third person effect does operate in the absence of perceived persuasive intent, but is accentuated when bias i s perceived by viewers.