Third-Person Perception and Health Beliefs (Report‪)‬

In lay terms, third-person perception (Davison, 1983) is the belief that media messages affect others more than they affect oneself. The phenomenon has become a mainstay of communications theory, with a growing literature documenting the impact of third-person-perception (TPP) on attitudes and behaviors (For reviews, see Conners, 2005; Golan & Day, 2008). TPP has been documented in a number of contexts, including advertisements (Chia, 2009; Sigal, 2009), news coverage (Coe et al., 2008; Frederick & Neuwirth, 2008), and on-line games (Boyle, McLeod, & Rojas, 2008; Zhong, 2009). While TPP is well established in the literature, the phenomenon remains of interest to scholars and practitioners, because people act on their perceptions. The most established attitudinal/behavioral link is the willingness to censor (Boyle, McLeod, & Rojas, 2008; Cohen & Weimann, 2008). For instance, college students who exhibit third-person perception regarding Internet pornography are also more willing to censor content or support stricter legislation (Zhao & Cai, 2008). Person-perception has also been linked with a number of attitudes and behaviors, including voting decisions (Golan, Banning, & Lundy, 2008; Jeffres et al., 2008), support for legal action (Day, 2008; Frederick & Neuwirth, 2008), and decreased risk behaviors (Chapin, 2000; Lewis, Watson, & Tay, 2007).