Windschitl, P. D., & Wells, G. L. (1997). Behavioral consensus information affects people's inferences about population traits. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 148-156.

Examined whether people adjust their estimates of relevant internal traits in the population as a function of manipulations of consensus information. Five trait characteristics were selected for each of 2 scenarios on the basis of their presumed relevance to the behaviors of helping or not helping someone. Impressions of the target person and measures of their impressions of populations of people on these same traits were obtained from 84 Ss. Consensus was manipulated by informing Ss that most people had or had not behaved or performed like the target person. Results indicate consensus manipulations had no effect on Ss' trait inferences from the target's behavior but had robust effects on Ss' assumptions about traits for the average person in a relevant population. A distinction is drawn between neglecting consensus information and using consensus information in a manner consistent with a dispositional bias.