Pluralistic Ignorance

           When explaining the concept of pluralistic ignorance in the text, Heine  (2012) uses the example of Princeton University Students and drinking. The students reported that they believed that most other students were more comfortable with high levels of alcohol consumption than they themselves were comfortable with.  The tendency for people to misinterpret ones thoughts into believing what they think the norm is, is pluralistic ignorance. When learning about this concept it seemed relevant to my culture, both in my hometown and here at StFX. When I first began to consider what culture is, I had a very limited view and I usually associated culture with nationality. Although nationality is a culture there are many subcultures and other cultures within a nation.

 Pluralistic ignorance in my mind appears to be most prevalent in high school. At least in my high school it seemed that way and could be applied to nearly any social situation. The reason that pluralistic ignorance seemed to have such an effect on students was the element of social desirability.  People would think that others would think more positively of them if they were to do what they believed was the most socially accepted thing.  Like I said this seemed extremely relevant in high school. I know myself at that age, I wanted to fit in and was scared to do what others thought was wrong. So by doing that I would go to parties with my friends that would make me feel uncomfortable. When learning about pluralistic ignorance I started to question some of the decisions I made in the past. For example if I was uncomfortable going to some of these parties, were my friends uncomfortable as well? Were we all going thinking everyone else wanted to go and be there?  Pluralistic ignorance can cause certain culture rules, to persist. If no one wants to speak out and say that they are uncomfortable with some of the decisions that are being made people are going to continue to participate in these actions are thus reinforce that it is considered acceptable in society.

Like we discussed as a class, pluralistic ignorance can be associated with hooking up. It appears that this is more where it fits in with my culture of students at StFX. Pluralistic ignorance could potentially cause a culture to follow norms and standards, which no one in the culture is comfortable with, or agrees with. Being part of a very individualistic culture this seems to surprise me. If our culture is so centered on the self, why do we participate in activities that seem to be uncomfortable, just so others will think more highly of us? It seems that as we get older, and this was mentioned in the discussion, that we start to focus less on what others seem to think of and more on a collective goal.