Unrecognized Changes in the Self Contribute to Exaggerated Judgments of External Decline

People commonly perceive social conditions as declining. We propose that perceptions of social decline are often a consequence of a bias whereby people mistake change in themselves for change in the world. The present research demonstrates that common personal changes such as the parenthood transiti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBasic and applied social psychology Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 193 - 203
Main Authors Eibach, Richard P., Libby, Lisa K., Ehrlinger, Joyce
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Philadelphia, PA Taylor & Francis Group 01.05.2012
Taylor & Francis
Psychology Press
Subjects
Ageing
Bias
Biological and medical sciences
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Judgments
Mistakes
Perceptions
Personal development
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Self
Social attribution, perception and cognition
Social conditions & trends
Social psychology
Social sciences
Transitions
Social environment
Human
Optimism pessimism
Information processing
Worldview
Cognition
Social change
Cognitive bias
Social cognition
Judgment
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Summary:People commonly perceive social conditions as declining. We propose that perceptions of social decline are often a consequence of a bias whereby people mistake change in themselves for change in the world. The present research demonstrates that common personal changes such as the parenthood transition (Studies 1-2) and physical aging (Study 3) may increase a person's sensitivity to dangers and thereby contribute to an illusory perception that external dangers are increasing. We use experimental models of the hypothesized change processes to test whether these common personal changes may contribute to judgments of social decline.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:0197-3533
1532-4834
DOI:10.1080/01973533.2012.674416