Economic games can be used to promote cooperation in the field.

We present experimental evidence of the impact of playing a game on real-life cooperation. The game was framed as a pest-management activity, the effectiveness of which depends on the decisions of others. Playing the game changes behavior in the field, increasing the participation in all collective activities directed at reducing pest pressure. The economic impact of those activities is important, leading to losses that are ∼20% lower than in the control group. Increased cooperation reflects changes in the understanding of others' willingness to cooperate, not changes in the understanding of underlying technological interdependencies.

Is football coming out? Anti-gay attitudes, social desirability, and pluralistic ignorance in amateur and professional football.

Past work consistently points to improved attitudes towards gay athletes and growing support for homosexuality, yet reports of a homophobic climate in amateur and professional football persist. Here, we explore two potential explanations for the prevalence of homophobia in football despite low levels of anti-gay attitudes: social desirability and pluralistic ignorance. We conduct an online survey among a football-affine and socio-demographically diverse sample in the UK. We find that anti-gay attitudes are rare. Importantly, estimates from a list experiment do not differ from the prevalence measured by direct questions, providing no evidence of social desirability. By contrast, second-order beliefs about anti-gay attitudes substantially and consistently exceed attitudes, pointing towards pluralistic ignorance as the most likely explanation. We conclude by emphasizing the need for transparent communication to reduce pluralistic ignorance and correct misperceptions among players, officials and supporters.

Misperceived eating norms: Assessing pluralistic ignorance in the food environment.

The current food environment communicates the social norm that it is normal to consume large amounts of unhealthy and unsustainable foods. However, it is unknown whether people endorse this norm because they agree with it, or whether they endorse it because they overestimate the degree to which other people agree with this norm - a phenomenon that is labeled as 'pluralistic ignorance'. We examined the possible presence of pluralistic ignorance by corroborating previous pluralistic ignorance literature in the food environment among a large representative sample of community residents (N = 433). In addition, we aimed to better assess pluralistic ignorance by comparing multiple dimensions, including how participants perceived themselves and other people in the importance, frequency, normalcy, and intentions of consuming healthy and sustainable food. We analyzed the perceptions with paired t-tests and our findings show that participants considered themselves to be healthier and more sustainable eaters than other people on all four dimensions. However, they did not think that other people were eating unhealthy or unsustainable. Participants themselves held low intentions to eat more healthily or sustainably and believed others had similar low intentions. Together, these findings reveal that there is a discrepancy between the perception of oneself and others regarding healthy and sustainable eating norms, which may suggest pluralistic ignorance. However, it is unclear whether this discrepancy would actually influence behavior, as suggested by the pluralistic ignorance literature, since people consider themselves healthier and more sustainable consumers who may not adjust their standards to perceptions of other people. We speculate they may use this discrepancy as justification in order to be complacent. In the discussion we consider these implications and next steps for future research.

Intergroup fears and concerns among minority and majority groups: Implications for contact and attitudes.

AIMS: Driven by the literature on pluralistic ignorance, our research investigates fear of appearing racist, being rejected, discriminated, and disinterest in intergroup contact as antecedents of contact and outgroup attitudes, focusing on attributional differences between the majority and minority group perspectives. METHODS: Questionnaires were distributed in schools in Northern Italy. Participants were 400 Italian and 141 immigrant high-school students. RESULTS: The results showed that the lack of interest in contact was the strongest predictor of contact for the majority group. For the minority group, fear of rejection emerged as the strongest predictor. The majority group attributed the minority to avoid contact most strongly due to the fear that they would be rejected, and the minority group perceived it was due to the majority not being interested in contact. CONCLUSION: Our research contributes to understanding the divergent concerns the majority and minority groups have in relation to intergroup contact and discusses the importance of tackling these concerns.

Mental Health Stigma and Veterinary Medical Students' Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help.

Veterinary medical students may be at increased risk for a variety of mental health problems. However, research with student samples suggests that students in distress may not seek professional help, even when mental health services are available. The purpose of this study was to explore veterinary students' willingness to seek mental health services for several common presenting concerns, as well as their perceptions of their peers' willingness to seek help for the same concerns. We also sought to explore the roles of public stigma, self-stigma, and attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help in explaining students' willingness to seek services using a serial mediation analysis. Study participants were 573 veterinary medical students currently enrolled in accredited programs in the United States. Participants reported being most willing to seek mental health services for issues regarding substance abuse, traumatic experiences, and anxiety. They also tended to perceive other students were less willing to seek mental health services for most presenting issues than they actually were. As expected, self-stigma and attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help serially mediated the relationship between public stigma and willingness to seek mental health services. Public stigma was positively related to self-stigma, self-stigma was negatively related to attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help, and attitudes toward seeking help were positively related to willingness to seek mental health services. Implications for outreach, research, and education are discussed.

Effects of experimental, network-based social circle norm feedback on studying behavior and alcohol consumption.

Misrepresentation of peer behavior has often been observed in college students and may lead to over-expression of alcohol consumption and under-expression of studying. While social norm feedback approaches have had mixed success in addressing these misrepresentations and altering behavior, they may have been too unspecific to be effective and did not directly assess individual perception accuracy. We thus investigated how specific, one-time feedback on the behavioral distribution of alcohol consumption or study time of a clearly defined, individually-adjusted social circle would affect the respective norm estimations and behavior of a class of Psychology students (n = 89 in January) across their first year of study. Students overestimated alcohol consumption and partially underestimated studying norms. While social circle feedback on alcohol consumption did not clearly affect both individual estimation accuracy and alcohol consumption, feedback on peers' studying time increased studying with no clear effect on estimation accuracy. This indicates that social circle norm feedback may be suitable to evoke behavioral effects. The correction of the detected inaccuracies did not appear to be a precondition for the feedback to be effective.

Toward a social psychology of cynicism.

Cynicism is the attitude that people are primarily motivated by self-interest. It tracks numerous negative outcomes, and yet many people are cynical. To understand this 'cynicism paradox', we review and call for more social psychological work on how cynicism spreads, with implications for how we might slow it down.

Pluralistic Ignorance as a Contributing Factor to Concussion Underreporting.

BACKGROUND: Concussion underreporting is endemic, and social norms are an established predictor of concussion reporting behavior. However, pluralistic ignorance-a situation in which most individuals in a group hold the belief that their peers' views differ from their own, despite views actually being similar-has not been studied in this context. AIM: To assess whether pluralistic ignorance contributes to concussion underreporting. METHOD: We surveyed 2,504 military service academy cadets. Each cadet was presented with a survey asking about their willingness to self-report a concussion, their perception of other cadets' willingness to report a concussion, and personal and demographic factors. RESULTS: Most cadets viewed themselves as more willing to report a concussion than others (mean difference = 1.12, 95% CI [1.02, 1.21]), a belief consistent with pluralistic ignorance. Demographic characteristics were associated with holding this belief. For example, female cadets and upper-class cadets were more likely to show this disparity than male or under-class cadets, respectively. Collegiate athletes not only showed similar willingness to report concussion as nonathletes but also perceived other cadets as less likely to report concussions. Meanwhile, future pilots showed less self-report willingness and perceived that others were similarly unwilling to report concussions. DISCUSSION: A majority of this economically and geographically diverse population displays characteristics of pluralistic ignorance: They largely share proconcussion reporting sentiments but incorrectly perceive that others do not. This belief is not held uniformly in all subpopulations, which may inform how these beliefs are developed and maintained. CONCLUSIONS: Pluralistic ignorance is an important consideration in concussion education efforts.

Ignorance Is Not Bliss: A U.K. Study of Sexual and Domestic Abuse Awareness on Campus, and Correlations With Confidence and Positive Action in a Bystander Program.

This article reports on a U.K. research study encompassing two surveys which used evidence-based scales of awareness, confidence to intervene, and intervention opportunities and action regarding sexual and domestic abuse on campus. They were sent to all first-year incoming undergraduates (>n = 7,000) at one post-1992 U.K. university and received n = 1,604 responses. The study finds that survey respondents demonstrated low awareness of sexual and domestic abuse as a problem on campus. In the analysis of Survey 2, respondents were divided into three groups, those receiving active intervention, passive intervention, and no intervention from a university social norms marketing campaign challenging abuse on campus. The study drives the field forward by considering how confidence to act mediates the relationship between awareness and positive action. It finds associations between active intervention and raised awareness that is not noted in passive or no intervention. Active intervention potentially brings together the mediating variable of confidence where awareness + confidence = positive action. This article makes recommendations for first-year incoming undergraduates to receive awareness raising information about sexual and domestic abuse, prior to coming to university. Universities may also consider working with schools to counter a lack of awareness, which may emanate from normalization discourses learnt prior to coming to university and perpetuated once there. Managing low awareness of sexual and domestic abuse should be a priority of bystander programs and some form of active intervention is potentially beneficial as early as possible in university student journeys.

COVID-19, normative attitudes and pluralistic ignorance in employer-employee relationships.

Employment relationships are embedded in a network of social norms that provide an implicit framework for desired behaviour, especially if contractual solutions are weak. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about major changes that have led to situations, such as the scope of short-time work or home-based work in a firm. Against this backdrop, our study addresses three questions: first, are there social norms dealing with these changes; second, are there differences in attitudes between employees and supervisors (misalignment); and third, are there differences between respondents' average attitudes and the attitudes expected to exist in the population (pluralistic ignorance). We find that for the assignment of short-time work and of work at home, there are shared normative attitudes with only small differences between supervisors and nonsupervisors. Moreover, there is evidence for pluralistic ignorance; asked for the perceived opinion of others, respondents over- or underestimated the consensus in the (survey) population. Such pluralistic ignorance can contribute to the upholding of a norm even if individuals do not support the norm, with potentially far-reaching consequences for the quality of the employment relationship and the functioning of the organization. Our results show that, especially in times of change, social norms should be considered for the analysis of labour markets.