V. Brabender et Fm. Deutsch, GENERALIZABILITY OF THE FALSE CONSENSUS EFFECT IN CHRONIC PSYCHIATRIC-PATIENTS, The Journal of social psychology, 133(2), 1993, pp. 215-223
The selective exposure hypothesis argues that the false consensus effe
ct occurs because people base their estimates about the prevalence of
behaviors, beliefs, and traits on a mental sample of those around them
, overrepresenting others who are similar. It was hypothesized that ps
ychiatric patients would be less subject to the false consensus effect
because they would recognize the deviance of their peers and avoid us
ing them to make estimates. Sixty male and female college students and
32 psychiatric patients estimated the percentage of average Americans
who endorsed 32 behaviors, beliefs, and self-descriptive traits. Cont
rary to prediction, the psychiatric patients' estimates were no less l
ikely than the college students' to exhibit false consensus effects.