Title

Inferring the popularity of an opinion from its familiarity

Summary

This paper examines how people often misjudge the distribution of opinions within their group, primarily due to the tendency to equate familiar opinions with prevalent ones, even if only one group member repeatedly expresses them. Six experiments demonstrate this effect, showing that it persists even when individuals are aware that the opinions come from a single speaker. The findings suggest that this bias is driven by the accessibility of repeated opinions, rather than conscious reasoning, and have implications for understanding social consensus estimation and influence.

 

َAuthor

Weaver, K., Garcia, S. M., Schwarz, N., & Miller, D. T

Year

2007

َThematic Area

Communication Studies

Topic

Misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation

Country

Global

Region

Global

Misinformation Combatting

Misinformation Diffusion

Place Published

APA 7th End Text Citation

Weaver, K., Garcia, S. M., Schwarz, N., & Miller, D. T. (2007). Inferring the popularity of an opinion from its familiarity: A repetitive voice can sound like a chorus.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(5), 821–833. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.5.821