The optimal impact phenomenon: beyond the third person effect

According to the third person hypothesis, people believe that the media have a greater effect on other people's attitudes and behaviours than on their own attitudes and behaviours. A self‐enhancement explanation for the third person effect was tested, stating that people perceive their own responses to the media not as weaker but as more appropriate than other people's responses. Subjects rated the relative attitudinal impact of messages that are generally considered to be desirable to be influenced by and of messages that are generally considered undesirable to be influenced by on themselves as compared to the average peer. Both attitudinal impact in the direction advocated by the message and in the opposite direction was rated. A ‘classic’ third person effect was obtained in those cases in which attitudinal media impact was considered undesirable only. In cases in which attitudinal media impact was considered desirable a ‘reversed’ third person effect occurred, thus supporting the self‐enhancement explanation and suggesting a reconceptualization of the third person effect in terms of an ‘optimal impact phenomenon’.