Pluralistic Ignorance Essay

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Misperceptions: Pluralistic Ignorance, Strategic Ambiguity, and Peer Approval Evidence shows that students tend to overestimate the sexual permissiveness of their peers (Barriger, & Velez-Blasini, 2013; Lambert et al., 2003). Similarly, quite often, in regards to the topic of hooking up, individuals engaged in pluralistic ignorance; that is, they attributed much higher perceptions of hookup encounters to their friends and students than to themselves (Hoffman et al., 2014).
Additionally, students tend to also overestimate peer approval for hooking up, and that this perceived peer approval is a strong predictor of hooking up (Holman et al., 2012). Participants with a diffuse identity style also displayed fewer assertive behaviours than information seeking participants (Williams et al., 2014), suggesting that they more easily give in to peer pressure, which furthermore may be linked to less autonomous hooking up behaviours and therefore greater levels of stress following a hookup (Vrangalova, 2015).
Pluralistic ignorance may be a result of the amount of an individuals peers that use strategic ambiguity. …show more content…

In other words, a woman 's sexual desire and pleasure are seen as less superior to a man 's expectations during a hookup encounter. A sexual double standard is further evident through women using the ambiguity of the term hookup to suggest that they are not having sex whereas men use this ambiguity to suggest that they are having sex and always with women (Currier, 2013). The term hookup serves women and men differently and, thus, has a form of gendered specific meaning when being interpreted. Women face more influences towards conforming to emphasized femininity, while men face influence to conform to hegemonic masculinity. This conformity maintains a socialized form of gender and social

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