FEMALE AND MALE THIRD-PERSON EFFECT IN ONLINE RESEARCH

The phenomenon, which Davison (1983) names the Third Person Effect (TPE), has been well -documented in psychology. Yet this has been limited to negative contents, since in the case of positive contents individuals perceive themselves as more "predisposed""(First Person Effect - FPE). We have dealt with the TPE and FPE perceptual component, through measuring the social distance on the scale myself other individuals. Testing intersexual differences we have also examined if the First and Third Person Effect occurs also when measured online. The accuracy of scales for measuring positive and negative behaviors has been established in the EFA procedure. The accuracy of both scales (Cronbach alpha) in two conditions exceeded 0.7. The small research group consisted of 588 individuals (352 women). 238 individuals have been examined with the paper-pencil method (128 women); 350 individuals with the use of an online survey (224 women). Research results have confirmed differences in self-assessment and assessing others on the scale of positive and negative behaviors; they also indicate that there is a significant gender influence and other data for the size of these effects. Women seem to assess themselves less positively and less negatively in relation to others then men. As far as negative behaviors are concerned, the examination method changes the relations significantly. In the online survey individuals have assessed themselves more negatively than others; in paper-pencil research the relation was opposite. The above differences in online and offline research will be explained in the Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) context. New online technological tools are challenge for social science. There is also problem with implementing results based on online application into knowledge generally based on traditional methodology (collecting data).