Object-Subject Distance and the Third Person Perception

Abstract

Two studies demonstrate that third person perceptions are less dependent on ego-defensive mechanisms than previously thought. It is argued that people use intuitive notions of media dependency when they estimate the influence of media on different groups of others. Our results show that when the "others" that are the object of media influence are close to the subject of communication, people perceive less influence. This finding joins new research contrasting with the idea of the "social distance corollary."