In Study 1 (n = 407), Dutch adults perceived their relationship on average as better than that of most others, and a majority assumed that at least half of the people with an intimate relationship are happy with this relationship. Both perceptions were more pronounced among those with a happy relationship. In Study 2 these findings were replicated in a sample representative of the Dutch adult population (n = 1,281) and were found to be largely independent of the order in which the questions were presented. Study 3 (n = 101) showed that perceived superiority was even more pronounced when the comparison group was the "typical average adult" rather than "most others. "Study 4 (n = 50) showed that perceived superiority also existed when one's own relationship and the relationship of the typical average adult were rated separately.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Argyle, M. , & Henderson, M. (1985). The anatomy of relationships. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin.
2.
Bosveld, W. , Koomen, W., & van der Pligt,J. (1994). Selective exposure and the false consensus effect: The availability of similar and dis-similar others. British Journal of Social Psychology, 33, 457-466.
3.
Buunk, B. P. (1990). Relationship Interaction Satisfaction Scale. In J. Touliatos, B. F. Perlmutter, & M. A. Straus (Eds.), Handbok of family measurement techniques (pp. 106-107). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
4.
Buunk, B. P. , Collins, R., VanYperen, N. W., Taylor, S. E., & Dakoff, G. (1990). Upward and downward comparisons: Either direction has its up and downs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 1238-1249.
5.
Buunk, B. P. , & VanYperen, N. W. (1989). Social comparison, equality and marital satisfaction: Gender differences over a ten year period. Social Justice Research, 3, 157-180.
6.
Buunk, B. P. , & VanYperen, N. W. (1991). Referential comparisons, relational comparisons and exchange orientation: Their relation to marital satisfaction. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 710-718.
7.
Campbell, J. D. (1986). Similarity and uniqueness: Effects of attribute type, relevance and self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 281-294.
8.
Fiske, S. T. (1980). Attention and weight in person perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 889-906.
9.
Goethals, G. R. (1986). Fabricating and ignoring social reality: Self-serving estimates of consensus. In J. M. Olson, C. Peter Herman, & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), Relative derivation and social comparison: The Ontario Symposium (Vol. 4, pp. 135-158). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
10.
Goethals, G. R. , Messick, D. M., & Allison, S. T. (1991). The uniqueness bias: Studies of constructive social comparison. In J. Suls & T. A. Wills (Eds.), Social comparison: Contemporary theory and research (pp. 149-176). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
11.
Heady, B. , & Wearing, A. (1988). The sense of relative superiority-Central to well-being. Social Indicators Research, 20, 497-516.
12.
Hogg, M. A. (1992). The social psychology of group cohesiveness. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
13.
Hoorens, V. (1994). Self-enhancement and superiority biases in social comparison. European Review of Social Psychology, 4, 113-140.
14.
Hoorens, V. , & Buunk, B. P. (1993). Social comparison of health risks: Locus of control, the person-positivity bias, and unrealistic optimism. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 23, 291-302.
15.
Klein, W. M. , & Weinstein, N. D. (in press). Social comparison and unrealistic optimism about personal risk. In B. P. Buunk & F. X. Gibbons (Eds.), Health, coping and well-being: Perspectives from social comparison theory. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
16.
Marks, G. (1984). Thinking one's abilities are unique and one's opinions are common. Personality and Social Psychology,
17.
Marks, G. , & Miller, N. (1987). Ten years of research on the false consensus effect: An empirical and theoretical review. Psychological Bulletin, 102, 72-90.
18.
McFarland, C. , & Miller, N. (1990). Judgments of self-other similarity Just like other people, only more so. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 16, 475-484.
19.
Schwarz, N. (1990). Assessing frequency reports of mundane behaviors: Contributions of cognitive psychology to questionnaire construction. In C. Hendrick & M. S. Clark (Eds.), Research methods in personality and social psychology (pp. 98-119). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
20.
Schwarz, N. , & Scheuring, B. (1988). Judgments of relationship satisfaction: Inter- and intraindividual comparison strategies as a function of questionnaire structure. European Journal of Social Psychology, 18, 485-496.
21.
Sherman, S. J. , Presson, L., Chassin, C. C., Corty, E., & Olshavsky, R. (1983). The false consensus effect in estimates of smoking prevalence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 9, 197-207.
22.
Spears, R. , & Manstead, A. S. R. (1990). Consensus estimation in a social context. In W. Stroebe & M. Hewstone (Eds.), European Review of Social Psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 81-110). Chichester, UK: Wiley.
23.
Suls, J. , Wan, C. K., & Sanders, G. S. (1988). False consensus and false uniqueness in estimating the prevalence of health protective behaviors. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 18, 66-79.
24.
Suls, J. , & Wills, T. A. (Eds.). (1991). Social comparison: Contemporary theory and research. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
25.
Taylor, S. E. , & Brown, J. D. (1988). Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 193-210.
26.
Van Lange, P. A. M. , & Rusbult, C. E. (1995). My relationship is better than- and not as bad as yours is: The perception of superiority in close relationships. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 32-44
27.
VanYperen, N. W. , & Buunk, B. P. (1990). A longitudinal study of equity in intimate relationships. European Journal of Social Psychology, 20, 287-309.
28.
VanYperen, N. W. , & Buunk, B. (1991). Illusoire superioriteit het verband met belang en verifieerbaarheid van vergelijkingsdimensies [Illusory superiority: The relation with importance and verifyability of comparison dimensions]. In J. van der Pligt, W. van der Kloot, A. van Knippenberg, & M. A. Poppe (Eds.), Fundamentele sociale psychologie (Vol. 5, pp. 186-200). Tilburg: Tilburg University Press.
29.
Weinstein, N. D. (1980). Unrealistic optimism about future life events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 806-820.
