Object-subject distance and the TPE – 19
would be perceived as less affected than others in general. As evident in Figure 1,
this was the case.
In accordance with the social distance corollary finding, development town
residents estimated that Tel Aviv residents would be more affected by the media’s
portrayal of development towns (m =3.06, sd = 1.5) than other residents of
development towns (m = 2.69, t (436) = 5.25, p < .01) who were both closer to them
than the Tel Aviv residents and closer to the content. However, when Tel Aviv area
residents were asked to estimate the impact of media coverage on others in general
and on residents of development towns, they thought that residents of development
towns (who were further from them but closer to the content) would be less affected
by the media’s portrayal of development towns (m = 3.13, sd = 1.3) than others in
general (m = 3.47, t (446) = -5.45, p < .01). Thus, the second hypothesis was
confirmed.
The third hypothesis predicted that the more development town residents were
socially involved in their community (H3a) and liked their community (H3b), the
larger their perceptual (self - other) gap would be. To test this hypothesis, a
difference score was computed by subtracting the average of the two perceptions of
effects on others from the estimate of effects on the self. This difference score is a
simple measure of the magnitude of the Third Person Effect (MTPE). In support of
hypothesis 3a, a positive correlation was found between the MTPE score among
development town residents and the involvement in the community (r (446) = 0.142,
p< .01), and in support of hypothesis 3b, a similar association was found with their
attitudes toward the community (r (446) = 0.146, p< .01)
1
. It is important to note that
the correlation between MTPE and both involvement and positive feelings towards
one’s place of residence resulted more from the perception that others are more
Convention