When opinions in a society change toward more or less tolerance of a group, people do not necessarily see it. Drawing on a quasi-representative survey (Study 1, N = 830) and a natural experiment (Study 2, N = 437), we investigated people's perceptions of the societal norms toward sexual minorities and the influence of laws on these (mis-)perceptions. Study 1 indicated pluralistic ignorance as participants overestimated the societal disapproval toward same-sex issues. Complementing this finding, Study 2 found that informing participants about a new law legalizing stepchild adoption decreased perceived societal disapproval of same-sex parenting compared with participants not informed about the law. Pluralistic ignorance, however, was not affected by the new law. While results indicate that pluralistic ignorance may be more resilient to change, they also highlight that laws can have a dual impact on societies, changing not only the legal situation but also shifting perceptions of societal norms.

中文翻译：

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法律对规范认知的影响

当社会中的观点或多或少地朝着对一个群体的宽容转变时，人们不一定会看到它。利用准代表性调查（研究 1，N = 830）和自然实验（研究 2，N = 437），我们调查了人们对社会规范对性少数群体的看法以及法律对这些（错误）的影响看法。研究 1 表明多元无知，因为参与者高估了社会对同性问题的反对。作为对这一发现的补充，研究 2 发现，与未了解该法律的参与者相比，告知参与者有关使继子女收养合法化的新法律减少了社会对同性养育的不满。然而，多元无知不受新法律的影响。虽然结果表明多元无知可能更能适应变化，