In daily life, various activities are undertaken either alone or with companions, and some of these activities involve a degree of risk. Beyond our concern for our own safety, we also care about other's safety. The current research investigates the influence of self-presence on how we perceive risk for the other. Across six studies (including two preregistered studies), we consistently found that when individuals were present (vs. absent), they were inclined to perceive their friend as safer when exposed to the same source of risk. This difference in perception can be attributed to individuals believing they have greater control over probabilistic events and experiencing lower levels of anxiety when accompanying their friend. Importantly, this perception bias could not be explained by the number of individuals engaging in risky behavior or the extension of optimistic bias. Furthermore, the self-presence effect did not exist among friends characterized by close relationships. These findings reveal a potent source of risk perception bias based solely on the presence of self.

中文翻译：

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和我在一起你更安全：自我的存在降低了他人的风险感知


在日常生活中，各种活动要么单独进行，要么与同伴一起进行，其中一些活动涉及一定程度的风险。除了关心自己的安全外，我们还关心他人的安全。目前的研究调查了自我存在对我们如何看待他人风险的影响。在六项研究（包括两项预先注册的研究）中，我们一致发现，当个人在场（与不在场）时，他们倾向于认为他们的朋友在暴露于相同的风险源时更安全。这种认知上的差异可以归因于个人相信自己对概率事件有更大的控制力，并且在陪伴朋友时经历的焦虑程度较低。重要的是，这种认知偏差不能用从事危险行为的人数或乐观偏差的扩大来解释。此外，以亲密关系为特征的朋友之间不存在自我存在效应。这些发现揭示了仅基于自我存在的风险认知偏差的一个潜在来源。