Pluralistic Ignorance About Student Radicalism

Abstract

A survey study of student attitudes revealed a bias in the estimation of other students' opinions on various issues. There was a significant tendency for students to overestimate the degree to which other students endorsed the radical position. The results contradict earlier research which found underestimation-, rather than overestimation, of the extent to which others hold opinions that exemplify presumably predominant values. This study also revealed an assimilation a tendency to presume more similarity between the norm and one's own position than actually existed. A one-year-later replication with a new population found an increased occurrence of radical bias, attributable to the fact that the presumed attitudinal climate was far more radical than in the previous year, while the actual extent of true radicalism had remained unchanged.