The Third Person Effect: Everyone Is Indoctrinated Except Me
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 interact with. 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. It This is what is known as the third person effect which we are going to explain throughout this article.
We call the third person effect a distortion in our belief system through which we consider that others are more influenceable than ourselves.
The effect in question observes that, seeing an advertising element or subjecting a specific argument to an attempt at persuasion, we tend to consider that the effect it has on ourselves is low or non-existent while at the same time We consider it much more likely that third parties will be affected by it 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 name “third person” is based on the idea that we tend to think that not only will we not be affected by persuasion but neither will those who are close to us (friends, partner, family or people to whom we feel close in general), while Yes, it will be people who are unknown to us or with whom we do not feel a connection. 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 him/her with some imprecision we do consider more susceptible.
The third person effect is an effect that appears regularly in most people and has nothing pathological about it. But once defined, it is worth asking why this type of belief exists. And on the one hand, this effect involves an overvaluation of one’s own ability to resist a persuasion attempt while on the other hand it supposes an undervaluation of the capacity of resistance of others towards attempts at persuasion.
In this sense, the same author who coined it (Davidson) considered that the cause of the third person effect was found in pluralistic ignorance, that is, the consideration that others They will not be able to analyze the situation with the same level of skill as us, either due to lack of skill or lack of the same information. This will cause external persuasion attempts to have a greater impact on them than on the subject himself.
Other authors, including some of a more psychodynamic nature, indicate that this effect is the product of individuation and the defense of self-concept: we believe ourselves to be less vulnerable than the rest as a mechanism to protect our own self-concept, in such a way that we unconsciously overvalue our capabilities. of resistance.
Influential 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 there are various factors that influence the consideration we have regarding the capacity of a message to generate 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 with little specificity and with a somewhat abstract theme, has a greater tendency to generate a third-person effect. Curiously, if the message is much more structured and specific, the consideration is reversed, with the third-person effect no longer appearing and moving on to the first-person effect: we believe that third people 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 great influence on the differentiated belief regarding his or her ability to convince us and others. 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 we will consider that their messages will have no effect on us or our environment, while we accept that third parties can be convinced or deceived more easily by lacking the same information regarding the issuer.
Finally, another element to consider is the emotional sphere and the interest of the subject himself with respect to the message itself. 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.
