Egocentric Bias or Information Management? Selective Disclosure and the Social Roots of Norm Misperception

Abstract

This paper reports on biases in group members' inferences about collective support for group norms. Whereas theories of looking glass perception suggest a tendency to project our own preferences onto others, this paper shows that observed biases simply may reflect flows of information through social networks. Members conceal counternormative behavior and disclose it selectively within confidence relations. This process yields structured inference, in which members'inferences depend on their social ties, and also pluralistic ignorance, in which members generally overestimate collective support for existing norms. These predictions are evaluated in a field study of perceived normative consensus in five vegetarian housing cooperatives. Results fail to support the intrinsic bias argument, but demonstrate these forms of in formation bias.