Learning Objectives: Define pluralistic ignorance and explain its implications for attitudinal and behavioral interventions.
Abstract: College students begin smoking for a variety of reasons. As studies have shown, an important factor in students’ behavior is their perception or misperception of social norms (Grube et al., 1986). Pluralistic ignorance refers to the misperception of normative beliefs (O’Gorman, 1986). For example, college students generally believe that other students’ attitudes towards drinking are more accepting than their own (Prentice & Miller, 1993; Schroeder & Prentice, 1998). Pluralistic ignorance can be applied to smoking as well, given its high visibility on campuses. Two studies examined the relationship between students’ own attitudes toward smoking on campus and their estimated attitudes of their peers. Study I identified the existence of pluralistic ignorance among first-year students. Study II found that exposing students to pluralistic ignorance was a more effective intervention in changing smoking attitudes and norms than the traditional intervention targeting the health effects of smoking. The implications of these findings for more effective smoking interventions are discussed.
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