The Effects of Others' Expectancies on the Fabrication of Opinions

Bibliographic Data

ID19132902
AuthorsSheldon Ungar (University of Toronto, corresponding author)
Year1981
Volume114
Issue2
Pages173-185
Publication date1981-08-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Social Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-4545 • E-ISSN: 1940-1183
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00224545.1981.9922747
OpenAlexW2034645851
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited10

Three field experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that the expectations which generalized or proximate others hold for knowledge about a subject will affect the rate at which people fabricate opinions. In what was ostensibly a man-in-the-street interview for a radio program, respondents were asked to comment on both actual public events and on “counterfeit” but plausible public events. In Experiments 1 and 2, Cs were used to manipulate the expectation that one should or should not be knowledgeable about public events. Experiment 3 used a subject for which one would expect knowledge to be differentially distributed by sex. Consistent with the self-presentational hypothesis that individuals use the cues provided by others to determine how to optimize the public image they convey, it was found that the rate of fabrication increased as various sources of information (other's expectations, other's knowledge, the specialization of the topic) suggested that one should be knowledgeable about the subject

Affect (linguistics) · Field (mathematics) · Presentational and representational acting · Subject (documents) · Test (biology) · Communication · Computer Science · Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence · Psychology · Public Relations and Crisis Communication · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology

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