Sources of Biases> False Consensus Effect

When all the people agree to a proposal or decision, it is called consensus.

• People perceive a false agreement about how common their own responses are.​
• They estimate their own responses as relatively common.
• They assume others will judge things the same way they do.
• They view alternate/different responses as uncommon or unusual.
• This bias exists in the observer's social inferences and perceptions.

• Rooted in cognitive and perceptual mechanisms.
• Egocentric perception — using one's own views as the starting point.
• A person sees their own choices as common and appropriate to the circumstances.
• Considers alternate responses as uncommon.
• Kelley & Stahelski (1970) highlighted ego-centric perception in the Prisoner's Dilemma situation.

• Heider (1958) founded attribution theory.​
• Jones & Davis (1965) — Correspondent Inference Theory.​
• Kelley (1967, 1973) — Covariation Model (consensus, consistency, distinctiveness).
• Kelley & Stahelski (1970) — ego-centric perception in Prisoner's Dilemma.
• They focused on the rules of logic/schemata a layman uses in making casual inferences.

• People decide if behaviour is caused by the person or the situation using three dimensions:
• Consensus — Do others behave the same way?
• Consistency — Does this person behave this way every time?
• Distinctiveness — Does this person behave this way only in this situation?

• Low consensus + High consistency + Low distinctiveness → Dispositional attribution (behaviour caused by person's traits)
• High consensus + High consistency + High distinctiveness → Situational attribution (behaviour caused by the situation)
• False consensus distorts the consensus dimension — people overestimate agreement with their own behaviour

• False consensus effect is the tendency to believe that others share our opinions, behaviors, or judgments.
• It is an egocentric bias that leads to wrong attributions in social perception.
• People think their own responses are common and correct, while alternative views are uncommon.
• This bias is caused by cognitive and perceptual mechanisms.
• According to Kelley, low consensus leads to dispositional attribution, while high consensus leads to situational attribution (when consistency and distinctiveness are also high).