Plural ignorance
Plural ignorance or pluralistic ignorance is a term which gives a name to a situation where a majority of group members privately reject a norm, but at the same time, they assume incorrectly that most others accept it.[1] The term describes a context in which "no one believes, but everyone thinks that everyone believes."[2]
A context of plural ignorance can be caused by the structure of the underlying social network.[3]
A situation of plural ignorance develops when each individual decision-maker in a group of decision-makers does not have the necessary information to solve a problem.[4]
History[change | change source]
The term pluralistic ignorance was coined by Daniel Katz and Floyd H. Allport in 1931.[1]
Plural ignorance may partially explain why people are more likely to intervene in an emergency situation when alone than when other persons are present.[5] If people monitor the reactions of others in such a situation, they may conclude from the inaction of others that other people think that it is not necessary to act.
Related pages[change | change source]
References[change | change source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Daniel Katz and Floyd H. Allport. (1931). Students' Attitudes: A Report of the Syracuse University Reaction Study, pp. 152-153.
- ↑ Centola, Damon, Robb Willer, and Michael Macy. 2005. "The Emperor’s Dilemma: A Computational Model of Self-Enforcing Norms," Archived 2013-10-02 at the Wayback Machine American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 110, No 4 (January 2005), pp. 1009–1040; retrieved 2013-3-1.
- ↑ Kitts, James A. "Egocentric Bias or Information Management? Selective Disclosure and the Social Roots of Norm Misperception," Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 66, No. 3 (September 2003), pp. 222-237; retrieved 2013-3-1.
- ↑ Henricks, Vincent F. and Pelle G. Hansen. (2011). Oplysningens blinde vinkler (Enlightenment blind spots), p. 17.
- ↑ Baumeister, Roy F. and Brad J. Bushman. (2010). Social Psychology and Human Nature, p. 280.