Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

The false consensus effect in estimates of safe and unsafe sexual practices

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  • The purpose of this study was three fold: 1) to determine if false consensus effects would be found for estimates of sexual behaviors, 2) to determine the directional accuracy of consensus estimates for subscribers and nonsubscribers and 3) to determine if the degree of accuracy of those estimates was influenced by self-esteem, sexual esteem, collective self-esteem, and religiosity. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 821 university students to gather consensus estimates for twelve sexual behavior items. False consensus effects were found for all twelve behavioral items and further analysis was done to determine the directional accuracy of the estimates as well as to determine what motivational factors might influence the degree of accuracy of the consensus estimates. The specific motivational factors examined were self-esteem, sexual esteem, collective self-esteem, and religiosity. These four factors were measured using the following scales: 1) the Self-Esteem Scale (SES) (Rosenberg, 1965), 2) the Sexuality Scale (SS) (Snell & Papini, 1989; Wiederman & Allgeier, 1993), 3) the Collective Self-Esteem Scale Revised (CSES-R) (Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992) and 4) the Scale of Attitude Towards Christianity (Francis & Stubbs, 1987; Francis, 1989). Results of the study indicated that although significant false consensus effects were found for all twelve behavioral items, the directional accuracy of subscriber's estimates of consensus was not consistently or predictably different from the directional accuracy of nonsubscriber's estimates of consensus. A motivation theory for false consensus effects as measured by the self-esteem scale, sexuality scale, collective self-esteem scale, and religiosity scale used in this study was not supported.
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