By Caroline Boyd-Rogers, M.A., University of Iowa
The value of peer support and learning is well-known in clinical science, particularly in group-therapy contexts (American Psychological Association, 2019). However, the role of peers and peer perceptions may be relevant to assess in individual therapy settings as well. Research has demonstrated that peer perceptions significantly relate to one’s attitudes, judgments and decision-making processes, behaviors, and even to symptom severity (e.g., Lewis et al., 2010; 2014; Perkins et al., 2005; Zelin et al., 2015). However, critically, research has found that these perceptions are often incorrect and systematically biased (e.g., Barriger & Vélez-Blasini, 2013; Boyd-Rogers et al., 2022; Dardis et al., 2015; Miller & Prentice, 2016). This article will briefly review empirical evidence related to peer influence and normative misperception, considerations for research studying and intervening in the normative misperception phenomenon, and clinical implications for this work.
The Role of Peer Influence
It is well-known that perceptions of peers can contribute to and maintain many symptoms of common internalizing clinical presentations (e.g., Spence & Rapee, 2016). However, work assessing individuals’ peer perceptions have found that these perceptions are influential factors beyond traditional definitions of negative cognitive appraisal and distortion. In undergraduate samples, for instance, peer perceptions also predict an individual’s own likelihood of holding problematic beliefs (e.g., endorsing misogynistic attitudes; Boyd-Rogers et al., 2022; Dardis et al., 2015; Loh et al., 2005). making risky decisions (Boyd-Rogers et al., 2022), and engaging in risky behavior such as heavy drinking, perpetrating sexually aggressive behavior, and engaging in risky sexual behavior (e.g., Lewis et al., 2010; 2014; Miller & Prentice, 2016; Perkins et al., 2005; Zelin et al., 2015). In community samples, these perceptions have also been shown to influence the likelihood in engaging in health or safety-promoting behaviors such as willingness to intervene as a bystander, to use sexual protection, to wear a seatbelt, etc. (e.g., Miller & Prentice, 2016).
Normative Misperception
It is possible to label these peer misappraisals as a form of “cognitive distortions,” because the evidence suggests that these perceptions of peers are often inaccurate and systematically biased (e.g., expecting the worst-case scenario). Empirically, most college students believe their peers hold more problematic attitudes, engage in riskier decision-making, and engage in more problematic behaviors than they really are (e.g., Barriger & Vélez-Blasini, 2013; Boyd-Rogers et al., 2022; Dardis et al., 2015; Miller & Prentice, 2016). This normative misperception is even more extensive for college students who endorse holding problematic attitudes or engaging in risky behaviors themselves (e.g., Bohner et al., 2010; Boyd-Rogers et al., 2022; Swartout, 2013).
Studying and Intervening in Normative Misperception
In research settings, these misperceptions are evaluated by asking participants to report on their attitudes and behaviors from their own perspective, as they usually would. They then respond to the same set of questions from the perspective of a peer reference group such as “the typical college man” or “the average household in your neighborhood” (e.g., Miller & Prentice, 2016). This provides estimates of both the average “self” data as well as the average data from the perspective of the reference group. A comparison of the two estimates reveals the magnitude of the normative misperception (e.g., Miller & Prentice, 2016).
Personalized normative feedback is one promising approach to changing the accuracy of these perceptions, which is a motivational interviewing-consistent technique that involves showing individuals their self-reported data, their projected peer data, and the actual data from a large sample of the reference group in question. This approach allows participants to make two potentially misperception-correcting and/or motivation-enhancing comparisons. First, they compare their projection of their peers to an actual large sample of their peers. Second, they compare their own data and their peers’ data (Miller & Prentice, 2016).
This approach has been shown to be efficacious in reducing the magnitude of undergraduates’ misperceptions and in increasing own bystander intervention behavior, reducing own binge drinking behavior, and decreasing own risky sexual behavior (Miller & Prentice, 2016) it has also been shown to decrease household energy use, and increase the amount of minutes walked per day (e.g., Bogard et al., 2020; Miller & Prentice, 2016) in general community samples.
Clinical and Empirical Implications
Thus, it is important for clinical scientists to consider the potential influence of peer perceptions on client attitudes, behaviors, and decision-making. However, given that these misperceptions are often a) systematically biased, b) related to relevant individual differences, and c) are prevalent in many populations of interest, it is also critical to consider normative misperception’s influence on the accuracy of self-report data. Particularly related to self-reports of an individual’s social landscape.
Personalized normative feedback techniques provide one data-driven mechanism by which we can provide feedback to individuals with cognitive distortions about relevant groups of individuals in their environment. While this approach may motivate change through a number of theoretically implicated mechanisms, it does not mandate change, making this a motivational-interviewing consistent approach that may reduce potential defensiveness (e.g., Belvins et al., 2018). Further, this approach may leverage some of the peer benefits of group therapy contexts by giving individuals a chance to reflect on how their own attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors may differ more substantially from their peers than they may have initially thought.
While normative misperception may be one form of “cognitive distortion” that some clinical samples may exhibit, normative misperception should be evaluated on a broader scale. Much of the work so far has centered on reducing risky health behaviors, increasing sexual health promoting behaviors, and decreasing environmentally harmful behaviors. If normative misperception is found to be consistent beyond these important, but specific domains, personalized normative feedback approaches may offer many promising research and clinical care directions for populations outside of a college student setting and within a clinical setting.
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References
American Psychological Association. (2019, October 31). Psychotherapy: Understanding group therapy. https://www.apa.org/topics/psychotherapy/group-therapy
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