Opponents of same-sex marriage worry that extending the institution’s rights to gay people will harm heterosexual marriages. But a new study suggests that no one really believes their own relationships are at risk — only other people’s.
The study is a demonstration of the “third-person perception,” a common psychological bias in which people are convinced that others are much more influenced by outside sources such as media and advertising than they themselves are. In the realm of same-sex marriage, people who strongly value authority and tradition were the most likely to demonstrate this third-person effect.
The study idea came about during the height of the public gay marriage debate several years ago, said study researcher Matthew Winslow, a psychologist at Eastern Kentucky University.