Third-Person Perception and Children

Abstract

Results of two studies provide the first evidence of third-person effect among children. In Study 1 (a survey of 571 seventh-grade students), children believed that cigarette advertisements influenced others more than themselves (third-person perception). Moreover, when children compared themselves with peers, the discrepancy between self and others was larger than when children compared themselves with their best friends (social distance corollary). In Study 2, children from Grades 4, 6, and 8 (n = 666) watched a 10-minute video portraying either cigarette or anti-smoking advertisements. Regardless of which video they watched, children believed that cigarette ads have greater influence on others than on themselves. The opposite was true for anti-smoking advertisements, however. Children believed that anti-smoking ads have greater influence on themselves than others (a reverse third-person perception). Children did not perceive uniformly greater impact of persuasive messages on people other than themselves. Instead, children's judgments of media influence were consistently self-serving. These findings corroborate a theory that third-person perception is the product of a superiority bias—the tendency to see ourselves as better, or better off, than others.