Notes in Communications -- The third-person effect
Davison (1983) defines the third-person effect hypothesis as the likelihood that “individuals who are members of an audience that is exposed to a persuasive communication (whether or not this communication is intended to be persuasive) will expect the communication to have a greater effect on others than on themselves” .
The measurement of the third-person effectt ypically involves asking people two different types of questions, one focused on the perceptions of the influence of media on oneself, and the other on the perceptions of influence of the media on others. A third-person effect is found if people report that others are influenced more than they themselves are by the mass media.
We all have double standards. When we are walking across the street, there is a driver blowing his horn to us. We will be very annoyed and even curse him for that. We feel this is normal.
However, when ourselves become drivers, we will curse the people who go across the street very slowly. We feel this is right.
So the third-person effect is just a habit of thinking. We should treat things with an open heart.
There are also examples about the third-person effect in news. Office of the Central Leading Group for Cyberspace Affairs had announced that Toutiao should turn off the Neihanduanzi App forever. So people who don’t look at Neihanduanzi and regard themselves as high-level audience are praising this behavior. They think that they can boycott the bad information but the children cannot. As a result, they support the desicion of the government and it is a good example of third-person effect.
Similarly, when the earthquake occurred in Japan in 2011, there was a trend of buying salt in China. Rumors came that salt had an effect of radiation protection and it was also a necessity for life, so salt had been sold out and the price was very high. When you saw people buying salt at that time, you would come up with an idea: more dangerous things must be done by someone in some place such as storing up goods to make a good bargain. You probably wouldn’t do that but you would imagine others doing that. That’s the third-person effect.
第三人效果又称第三人理论、第三人效应。最早是由美国哥伦比亚大学戴维森教授于 1983 年提出的。他认为人们在判断大众传媒的影响力之际存在着一种普遍的感知定势，既倾向于认为大众媒介的信息对个人层面（对我或你）未必产生多大影响，然而对社会层面（对他人）会产生不可估量的影响。
我们经常喜欢持有双重标准看问题：当你是路人，过马路的时候，一辆轿车催你，冲你鸣笛，你巴不得那辆车分分钟自爆，车毁人亡连渣都不剩。我们觉得这叫人之常情。
而当我们工作，买了车，过红绿灯时，但凡有很多人在人行横道上挡路，你立刻又是另一番愿景：”怎么这么慢，倒是快点啊”，我们这时又会开脱说：这叫规则理性。
第三人效果其实就是乌鸦落在猪背上———个赛过一个黑（比喻一个更比一个坏），这是一种习惯，那个被我们尊崇的理性无疑使不值得我们扛举的大旗。
当看到汽车占道时，大可以体谅一点，也许人家有急事; 当看到骑电动车送外卖小哥员横冲直撞，我也会体谅，因为挺不容易。角度不同，心态则不同，切勿用狭隘的立场去抨击别人，否则只会显的自己更狭隘。多些体谅与包容，少些急躁与谩骂。请换个角度看问题，因为我们不知道哪天倒霉的会是自己。
在一些新闻事件中，也可以看到第三人效果。国家网信办责令今日头条永久关停内涵段子客户端及公众号，大量网民纷纷叫好。对于一些平时不怎么看内涵段子或者认为自身知识水平较高不会受到低俗信息影响的用户来说，关不关停其实对他们来说没有多大的影响，但他们认为内涵段子上的不良信息会误导他人，尤其是针对知识储备尚不完善的青少年来讲，内涵段子上的低俗信息会不利于青少年的健康成长，因此他们对关停内涵段子持肯定态度，这正是戴维森第三人理论的体现。
类似的是，在2011年日本大地震的时候，中国发生了一阵食盐的抢购行为，因为有流言说食盐可以防辐射，还有担心生活必需品不够。盐荒的时候，你看见有人在买盐，得出这样的结论：肯定有比这人买盐更恐怖的，也肯定有囤盐发大财的。通过你看到的第三人的行为，判断出更离谱、更偏激的“未见到的第三者”的行为是合理存在的，但是你不会这样做。所以诸如“抢购”风潮、“群体逃难”等许多突发性社会集合行为的起因，都与“第三人效果”有关。
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