How strong is the association between social media use and false consensus?

In series of studies, we sought to assess the extent to which social media use was related to the false consensus effect. Study 1 (N = 493) and Study 2 (N = 364, preregistered) assessed the relationship between social media use and the false consensus effect for three psychological characteristics: political attitudes, personality traits, and fundamental social motives. Study 3 (N = 875) explored lay beliefs about the strength of the relationships between social media use and false consensus effects. Across studies, we found that heavier use of social media was associated with stronger false consensus effects. However, these effects were smaller in magnitude than lay beliefs about these linkages. •Heavier social media users showed higher rates of false consensus effects across a range of psychological characteristics.•Metanalysis, equivalence testing, and analyses controlling for demographics showed these effects to be reliable and robust.•These findings are consistent with an “echo chamber” view of social media.•However, the effects were small by conventional standards and weaker than assumed by laypeople.