Third-person effect

Biological Parallel

Vervet monkeys hearing leopard alarm calls assess threat differently depending on caller: juveniles' warnings are often ignored (assumed unreliable), while dominant adults' calls trigger immediate flight. Each monkey views others as more susceptible to false alarms than itself—maintaining skepticism protects against wasted energy fleeing phantom threats. The third-person effect—believing persuasion and propaganda affect others more than ourselves—reflects this evolved skepticism: assuming you're less manipulable than others is adaptive when signal reliability varies, protecting against exploitation while monitoring threats through others' gullibility.