When social worlds collide: Overconfidence in the multiple audience problem

Individuals sometimes try to convey different identities to different peopl e simultaneously or to convey certain information to one individual while s imultaneously concealing it from another How successfully can people solve these multiple audience problems and how successfully do they think they ca n? The research presented here corroborates previous findings that people a re rather adept at such tasks. In Study I, participants who adopted differe nt identities in preliminary interactions with two other participants (acti ng the part of a studious nerd with one and a fun-loving party animal with the other) were able to preserve these identities when they interacted subs equently with both individuals at the same time. In Study 2, participants w ere able to communicate a secret word to one audience while simultaneously concealing it from another Despite their skill at these tasks, however part icipants in both studies were overconfident in their abilities, believing t hat they were better able to solve these multiple audience problems than th ey actually were.