Investigating the Pluralist Ignorance in the Organization; Antecedants and Consequences

Pluralistic ignorance is a cognitive error in which an individual has the idea or the theory, but mistakenly assumes that the majority of his colleagues have the opposite view. Regarding the significant effect of this error on individual, group, and organizational behavioral variables and failure to address it in the scientific literature of management in Iran, the purpose of this article is to introduce this situation, its effective antecedents and consequences in the field of organizational behavior. For this purpose, 104 valid international papers were reviewed. Regarding the unsuitable title, abstract and content of 65 articles, 39 items were considered for the final review. Reviewing these cases examines the antecedents and consequences of pluralistic ignorance and attempts to understand how it influences the behavior of employees. The findings of the research show that pluralist ignorance is a complex phenomenon that influences factors such as minority influence and preservation of intra-group identity (influenced by relational demographics), false consensus, false unity and silence spiral in its occurrence. It also has important implications for the behavior of employees at the individual (direct and indirect), group, and organizational levels. Hypotheses resulting from the review of literature is intended to guide managers and researchers in order to better understand the pluralistic ignorance and how to prevent it in the field of organizational decision making.