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social
You think your virtues are unique, but your vices are normal.
The 1987 study by Suls and Wan demonstrated that people tend to underestimate the commonality of their positive or healthy traits (the False Uniqueness Effect).
The separate tendency to view one's own negative behaviors as widespread is known as the False Consensus Effect, a phenomenon typically associated with Ross, Greene, and House (1977).
You treat your bad habits as universal and your successes as private.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Suls and Wan, 1987, False Uniqueness Effect
- What the check found
- The claim conflates two distinct psychological biases into one study. Suls and Wan (1987) specifically investigated the False Uniqueness Effect, not the combination of it with the False Consensus Effect.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.