Pluralistic Ignorance About Sex: The Direct and the Indirect Effects of Media Consumption on College Students' Misperception of Sex-Related Peer Norms

The term pluralistic ignorance refers to erroneous beliefs heldby a group of individuals about the attitudes or behavior ofothers. In this study, we examined the degree to which collegestudents in Singapore misconceive their peers’ sexualattitudes and behavior. The data for this study came from aweb-based survey involving a random sample of 534 college studentsin Singapore. The results indicate widespread evidence of pluralisticignorance; that is, students believed that their peers weresignificantly more sexually active than was actually the case.The data also suggest that the students formed such erroneousimpressions of peers on the basis, in part, of the students’media consumption and of the students’ own sexual attitudes.