B2 – Upper Intermediate
“I bet everyone else does it too!” Have you experienced justifying a wrongful action by arguing that it is socially acceptable to do so? If your answer is yes, you may have fallen trap to the false consensus effect.
The false consensus effect is a psychological concept which states that people overestimate how acceptable and prevalent their own behavior is. According to research, this psychological thinking has contributed to environmental damage.
Click the link and find out more about the false consensus effect.
Discussion Questions:
- Can you cite some situations when the false consensus effect can be observed?
- How can the false consensus effect contribute to environmental damage?
- Have you fallen victim to false consensus effect?
- What can we do to prevent ourselves from falling into this kind of psychological thinking?
- Based on the article, how can the same psychological concept be used to address the problem of environmental damage?
4 replies on “False Consensus Effect Drives Environmental Damage”
1. Can you cite some situations when the false consensus effect can be observed?
– Smoking on restricted areas can be seen quite frequently, and the fact of finding people breaking that rule increases the possibility for additional people to have the same behaviour.
– Even when drink or drug abuse is not good, on certain collectives it could be socially accepted.
2. How can the false consensus effect contribute to environmental damage?
– Yes, and some times it can be even a way to manipulate people for they to do something. Influencers can generate some social pressure so it could affect for some people to behave in a certain way.
3. Have you fallen victim to false consensus effect?
– Probably yes. Since it is an unconscious mechanism, it is very possible that we all are falling victims to false consensus almost on a daily basis.
– There are several industries dedicating effort to justify their products, even when they are not good or environmentally dangerous.
4. What can we do to prevent ourselves from falling into this kind of psychological thinking?
– Be more analytics, try to question everything.
5. Based on the article, how can the same psychological concept be used to address the problem of environmental damage?
– Yes, it can be used the same concept of False Consensus to produce a positive pressure to take the right decision. For instance generating a positive acceptance when recycling, sustainable products, etcetera
Good efforts expressing your answers to this lesson’s discussion questions.
Just be a bit careful on your word order on this one:
Keep up the good job!
1. Can you cite some situations when the false consensus effect can be observed?
As written in the article, people are more likely to litter in areas where there’s already a lot of trash strewn around
In the pandemic, when people saw groups of people around a table (in restaurant terraces), they do the same because “if everyone else does it, I can do it too”
In the early-teeagers group (11-13) the most used sentence to convince their parents to use social media is that “everyone in the class has acces to SSMM”
2. How can the false consensus effect contribute to environmental damage?
Usually to be environmentally friendly has costs. Cost in time or space in your kitchen (different bins/ put every recyclable product in their street container,…), economical cost (to buy eco/bio food is more expensive than non-eco food, to buy an eco car the same), etc. If you think that you’re the only one making this effort usually you don’t think that you are better than others or the one to be followed but the contrary. You can think that you are the silliest one, making efforts than no-body else do.
3. Have you fallen victim to false consensus effect?
Yes, but the most I age, the less I fall into the false consensus effect. I recognize than when I was a little girl I wanted to do whatever others did (or what I though they did). Now, sometimes I want to do the contrary. I’ve learned to have my own priorities and to act accordingly to it, with independence of what I can think others are doing.
4. What can we do to prevent ourselves from falling into this kind of psychological thinking?
To think individually about things, stablish our own criteria (and to analyze and get information about the real situation and social opinion about anything, not only “it seems that people think/does this”
5. Based on the article, how can the same psychological concept be used to address the problem of environmental damage?
Switching the perception and creating a positive false consensus effect where the aspirational people stands for sustainability and environmental respect.
Giving factual information on how other people think and behave (% of “good practices” in different aspects).
Encouragingly, activating people’s inherent desire for status has also been successful in getting people to “go green to be seen”, or to publicly buy eco-friendly products
Your efforts in coming up with sensible answers is admirable. Keep it up.
Just see how this one sentence can be made a bit better:
Usually to be environmentally friendly has costs.