Social Identity and Perceptions of Media Persuasion: Are We Always Less Influenced Than Others?¹

People typically perceive negative media content (e.g., violence) to have more impact on others than on themselves (a third‐person effect ). To examine the perceived effects of positive content (e.g., public‐service advertisements) and the moderating role of social identities, we examined students' perceptions of the impact of AIDS advertisements on self, students (in‐group), nonstudents (out‐group), and people in general. Perceived self‐other differences varied with the salience of student identity. Low identifiers displayed the typical third‐person effect, whereas high identifiers were more willing to acknowledge impact on themselves and the student in‐group. Further, when influence was normatively acceptable within the in‐group, high identifiers perceived self and students (us) as more influenced than nonstudents (them). The theoretical and practical implications of this reversal in third‐person perceptions are discussed.