The Third Person Effect

Another way that selectivity may limit media effects is the fact that we tend to overestimate how much influence media actually have on people. The third person effect is a well-documented tendency we have to assume that negative media messages and bias have a much greater influence on other people than on ourselves or people we think are like us (Davison, 1983; Sun, Pan, & Shen, 2008). The third person effect can lead to censorship when we believe it will protect “other” people who we (or our government or religious community) don’t think are able to handle certain media messages. A recent study finds that the effect is particularly strong for social networking—we think others are more influenced by Facebook than we ourselves are (Zhang & Daugherty, 2009). With all media, you need to be aware that you may be overestimating the effect on others or underestimating the effect on yourself (or both).