third-person effect
a tendency for a person to expect that others will be more strongly influenced by (i.e., will respond to and take action as a result of) a persuasive communication in the mass media than he or she would be. The third-person effect has been studied extensively and is of particular interest in politics, social policy, and health psychology. It generally is explained in terms of a desire for self-enhancement: People are motivated to reinforce their positive self-images and thus are unrealistically optimistic in comparing themselves to others. Negative attitudes toward the media generally (i.e., believing newspaper, television, and radio communications to be manipulative or otherwise deceitful) may also play a role. Also called third-person perception. [coined in 1983 by U.S. sociologist W. Phillips Davison (1918–2012)]