Those with extreme views think most agree

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- People with extreme views have a false sense that they are in the majority and may be more willing to express themselves, U.S. researchers said.

Study co-author Kimberly Rios Morrison, assistant professor of communication at Ohio State University, said people with relatively extreme opinions may be more willing to share their views publicly than those with more moderate views.

For example, Morrison and co-author Dale Miller of Stanford University found college students who were extremely pro-alcohol were more likely than others to express their opinions, even though most students surveyed were moderate in their views about alcohol use.

"Students who were stridently pro-alcohol tended to think that their opinion was much more popular than it actually was," Morrison said in a statement. "They seemed to buy into the stereotype that college students are very comfortable with alcohol use."

The results may offer one possible explanation for the fractured U.S. political climate, in which extreme liberal and conservative opinions often seem to dominate, the researchers suggested.

The findings are published the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.