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Research Details
Is Our Absence as Conspicuous as We Think? Overestimating the Salience and Impact of One's Absence From a Group, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Abstract
This research provides evidence that people overestimate the salience to others of their own absence from a group. Although individuals regard the removal of someone else from a group to be less salient than the addition of that person, they regard their own removal as every bit as salient as their addition (Study 1). Those absent from a group also expect their absence to be salient in the eyes of others, overestimating the extent to which their absence will be noticed by others (Study 2), and rating their absence as having had a larger impact on the group's subsequent functioning than others do (Study 3). Discussion focuses on individuals' assessments of their absence as an example of a broader egocentrism in social judgment.
Type
Article
Author(s)
Kenneth Savitsky, Thomas D. Gilovich, Gail Berger Darlow, Victoria Medvec
Date Published
2003
Citations
Savitsky, Kenneth, Thomas D. Gilovich, Gail Berger Darlow, and Victoria Medvec. 2003. Is Our Absence as Conspicuous as We Think? Overestimating the Salience and Impact of One's Absence From a Group. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.(4): 386-392.