Change

Was their choice a result of peer influence? Was it due to a specific feature of the proposal? Was it because of benefits they anticipated for the university (or for themselves as alumni)? Students replied, almost unanimously, that their choices were based on the quality of the proposals and their potential impact on the school. Rarely did they list peer influence as a major reason for their decisions. The final twist in the study is the most interesting. Students were then given profiles of students who had voted in the same way that they did. They were then asked to evaluate the reasons why those students had made their decisions. Were their choices due to peer influence, the quality of the proposals, or anticipated benefits for themselves or the university? This time, the responses were notably different. Participants were significantly more likely to explain other students’ decisions in terms of peer influence. Many other studies have shown the same effect. People often explain other people’s choices as a desire to conform to social norms but rarely believe it about themselves. When it comes to their own decisions, most people are certain that their choices are based on intelligent reasoning and personal preferences. This observation has since become known as the introspection illusion. Another example: In a 2004 New York Times article about the growing trend of extravagant indulgences among middle-class Americans, a reporter wrote about one New Jersey woman’s choice to purchase a $7,000 stove. “It was not keeping up with the Joneses that made her want a Viking range, she said. It was because, as a serious cook who likes to entertain, it had the features she needed.” The vast majority of the time, the social influences altering people’s behavior take place beyond their field of vision—in their blind spot. Over the last several decades, social-science experiments have become increasingly good at pinpointing these blind spots and measuring their effects on people’s behavior. The introspection illusion offers a clear insight to help us understand this blind spot: people explain their own behavior in terms of what they feel inside, rather than what is happening outside. This simple observation has big implications for the science of social norms. It means that people’s beliefs about what will motivate them to change their behavior are often not a reliable guide for helping them to actually change. In fact, people’s beliefs about their own motivations may be the least reliable explanation for their behavior. In 2007, an ingenious two-part study showed how the introspection illusion creates a sand trap for public policy, and how to successfully maneuver around it.

Was their choice a result of peer influence? Was it due to a specific feature of the proposal? Was it because of benefits they anticipated for the university (o…