When Social Worlds Collide: Overconfidence in the Multiple Audience Problem

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 26, 620-629, 2000

10 Pages Posted: 8 Feb 2010

See all articles by Kenneth Savitsky

Kenneth Savitsky

Williams College - Department of Psychology

Thomas Gilovich

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Leaf Van Boven

University of Colorado Boulder

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: 2000

Abstract

Individuals sometimes try to convey different identities to different people simultaneously or to convey certain information to one individual while simultaneously concealing it from another. How successfully can people solve these multiple audience problems and how successfully do they think they can? The research presented here corroborates previous findings that people are rather adept at such tasks. In Study 1, participants who adopted different identities in preliminary interactions with two other participants (acting the part of a studious nerd with one and a fun-loving party animal with the other) were able to preserve these identities when they interacted subsequently with both individuals at the same time. In Study 2, participants were able to communicate a secret word to one audience while simultaneously concealing it from another. Despite their skill at these tasks, however, participants in both studies were overconfident in their abilities, believing that they were better able to solve these multiple audience problems than they actually were.

Suggested Citation

Savitsky, Kenneth and Gilovich, Thomas and Van Boven, Leaf, When Social Worlds Collide: Overconfidence in the Multiple Audience Problem (2000). Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 26, 620-629, 2000 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1532600

Kenneth Savitsky

Williams College - Department of Psychology ( email )

Williamstown, MA 01267
United States

Thomas Gilovich

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Leaf Van Boven (Contact Author)

University of Colorado Boulder ( email )

University of Colorado Boulder
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, 345 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309
United States
303.735.5238 (Phone)
303.492.2967 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://psych.colorado.edu/~vanboven/

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