How do people make judgments about characteristics of their peers? We investigate what cognitive strategies underlie peer judgments, what group-level patterns of judgments these strategies produce, and whether they generate accurate judgments.

We develop a general model that allows for comparison of different cognitive strategies including ego projection, probability matching, and three memory-based strategies.

We examine it using a unique data set including self-reports and estimates of peer substance use among youth experiencing homelessness (N = 239).

We find evidence for the adaptive use of strategies that are most appropriate given the information available from one’s personal experience and social environment.

On the group level, the pattern of judgments sometimes resembles false consensus and sometimes false uniqueness, but overall shows a high level of accuracy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

H. Olsson, A. Barman-Adhikari, M. Galesic, H.-T. Hsu, E. Rice, Cognitive strategies for peer judgments, Decision 10(3) (2023), 268-287.