Naive Medientheorien und Third-Person Perception

The ideas of laymen about media effects have always played a role in approaches of communication science. The work develops a comprehensive theoretical concept of lay theories which is put in relation to third-person perception research. A first study based on qualitative focus interviews identifies a relevant set of theories laymen have about media effects. Using a quantitative survey, a second study tests the interplay with third-person perception and its predictors.
The work thus offers communication researchers both a starting point for further exploration of lay theories as well as an extension of the existing research perspective to third-person perception research.