False enforcement as an impression management strategy: its social function in the process of pluralistic ignorance

Abstract

Pluralistic ignorance has been suggested to contribute to the perpetuation of social norms, sometimes even when the norms are unpopular and have already lost the support of the majority of group members. Previous studies have suggested that false enforcement could reinforce the perpetuation of unpopular norms by suppressing the number of deviants; however, little is known about the underlying psychological mechanism responsible for this. In the current study, we tested the hypothesis that impression management motivation induces false enforcement, and the perpetually low rates of men taking paternity leave in Japan was addressed as a topic. The results demonstrated that misperceiving others’ beliefs activates impression management motivation. Consequently, norm enforcement toward deviants can be induced even when people do not approve of the norm. This confirms the validity of the impression management strategy hypothesis, which states that people tend to enforce perceived norms based on self-presentational motivation rather than their willingness to persist with the unpopular norms in situations of pluralistic ignorance.