Editing Pluralistic ignorance (section)

==Research==
[[Deborah Prentice|Prentice]] and Miller conducted a contemporary study on pluralistic ignorance, examining individuals beliefs on alcohol use and estimating the attitudes of their peers.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Prentice|first1=Deborah A.|last2=Miller|first2=Dale T.|date=1993|title=Pluralistic ignorance and alcohol use on campus: Some consequences of misperceiving the social norm.|url=http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/0022-3514.64.2.243|journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology|language=en|volume=64|issue=2|pages=243–256|doi=10.1037/0022-3514.64.2.243|pmid=8433272 |s2cid=24004422 |issn=1939-1315|url-access=subscription}}</ref> The authors found that, on average, individual levels of comfort with drinking practices on campus were much lower than the perceived average. In one subset of experiments, they traced the attitude change toward alcohol consumption of men versus women over the semester. In men, the authors found a shifting of private [[Attitude (psychology)|attitudes]] toward this perceived [[Social norm|norm]], demonstrating a form of [[cognitive dissonance]]. Women were found to have no shift in attitude over the course of the semester. Additionally, students perceived deviance from the social norm on alcohol use was correlated with various measures of campus alienation. Even though that deviance from the social norm was only perceived, it shows how isolation from the larger population can lead to larger differences between an individual's belief and the populations belief, leading to pluralistic ignorance. This study showed that the university students showcased pluralistic ignorance by individuals believing that the general populations comfort level with drinking practices was significantly higher than their personal comfort level, when in reality the individuals comfort level was quite similar to the general populations comfort level.

Additional research has shown that pluralistic ignorance plagues not only those who indulge, but also those who abstain. Examples consist of individuals beliefs on traditional vices such as gambling, smoking and drinking to lifestyles such as [[vegetarianism]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Schanck|first1=Richard Louis|title=A study of a community and its groups and institutions conceived of as behaviors of individuals.|journal=Psychological Monographs|date=1932|volume=43|issue=2|pages=i–133|doi=10.1037/h0093296|hdl=2027/umn.319510014995563|hdl-access=free}}</ref> With the latter showcasing that pluralistic ignorance can be caused by the structure of the underlying [[social network]], not exclusively cognitive dissonance, demonstrating how pluralistic ignorance can arise through a variety of methods.