The third-person effect: everyone is indoctrinated except me.

This psychological distortion makes us think that we have our own special and unique criteria.

Each of us has an idea about ourselves, a self-concept. We also have an idea about the world, a way of representing the reality that surrounds us and the people we relate to. And we also have an idea about how we or others may perceive or be affected by things. In this sense, we can observe that when it comes to viewing advertising, we generally consider that it has a different effect on ourselves than on others. This is what is known as the third-person effectwhich we will explain in this article.

The third-person effect: what is it?

We call the third person effect a distortion in our belief system through which we consider that others are more susceptible to influence than ourselves.

The effect in question observes that, when we see an advertising item or subject a particular argument to an attempt at persuasion, we tend to consider that the effect it has on ourselves is low or non-existent, while we in turn we consider it much more likely that third parties will be affected by it and modify their beliefs. and modify their beliefs. The effect in question was formulated by Davidson in 1983, in the observation of people's beliefs regarding the power of persuasion in advertising.

The term "third person" is based on the idea that we tend to think that not only we will not be affected by persuasion, but also those who are close to us (friends, partners, family or people to whom we feel close in general), while people who are unknown to us or with whom we do not feel a bond will be. In other words: we believe that neither the subject we call "I" nor the one we consider "you" will be easily persuaded, but those we usually call "he/she" with a certain imprecision are considered more susceptible.

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What are these beliefs due to?

The third person effect is an effect that appears habitually in most people and that has nothing pathological. But once defined, it is worth asking why this type of belief occurs. On the one hand, this effect implies an overestimation of one's own capacity to resist a persuasion attempt, while on the other hand it implies an underestimation of the other's capacity to resist persuasion attempts.The third person effect, on the other hand, implies an underestimation of the other person's capacity to resist persuasion attempts.

In this sense, the same author who coined it (Davidson) considered that the cause of the third-person effect was to be found in pluralistic ignorance, i.e., the consideration that others will not be able to analyze the situation with the same level of skill as we do, either for lack of skill or for lack of ability.either because of lack of skill or because they lack the same information. This will cause external attempts at persuasion to make more of an impression on them than on the subject himself.

Other authors, including some of a more psychodynamic bent, indicate that this effect is the product of individuation and self-concept defense: we believe ourselves to be less vulnerable than others as a mechanism to protect our own self-concept, so that we unconsciously overestimate our resistance capabilities.

Influencing factors

It should be noted that the third-person effect does not appear in the same way and with the same intensity in the face of any attempt at persuasion, since there are various factors that influence the third person effect.There are several factors that influence the consideration we have regarding the capacity of a message to generate a behavioral change.

One of the main influencing factors is the message, affecting aspects such as its level of consistency, generality and abstraction. An unclear message, formulated in a generic way and with little specificity and with a somewhat abstract subject matter, has a greater tendency to generate a third person effect. Curiously, if the message is much more structured and specific, the consideration is reversed, and the third person effect ceases to appear and becomes the first person effect: we believe that third parties will not be as deeply affected or moved by the message as we are.

On the other hand, the sender of the message and our relationship or consideration for him or her is also an element that can have a great influence on the differentiated belief regarding his or her capacity to convince us and the rest. In general, the worse consideration we have of the issuing subject or institution, the greater the intensity of the third person effect.

For example, if we hate someone if we hate someone, we will consider that their messages will have no effect on us. or our environment, while we accept that third parties can be more easily convinced or deceived because they lack the same information about the sender.

Finally, another element to consider is the emotional sphere and the subject's own interest with respect to the message itself. A greater emotional involvement or the existence of motivation or interest tends to mean that the third person effect does not occur or occurs to a lesser extent, with the aforementioned first person effect being more likely to occur.

Bibliographical references

• Davison, W. P. (1983). The third-person effect in communication. Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 47: 1-15.
• Paul, B.; Salwen, M.B. & Dupagne, M. (2000). The Third-Person Effect: A Meta-Analysis of the Perceptual Hypothesis. Mass Communication and Society; 3(1): 57 - 85.
• Falces, C: Bautista, R & Sierra, B. (2011). The third-person effect: the role of argument quality and estimation type. Journal of Social Psychology, 26 (1): 133-139.