The Bias Blind Spot: Perceptions of Bias in Self Versus Others
Top Cited Papers
- 1 March 2002
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
- Vol. 28 (3), 369-381
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167202286008
Abstract
Three studies suggest that individuals see the existence and operation of cognitive and motivational biases much more in others than in themselves. Study 1 provides evidence from three surveys that people rate themselves as less subject to various biases than the “average American,” classmates in a seminar, and fellow airport travelers. Data from the third survey further suggest that such claims arise from the interplay among availability biases and self-enhancement motives. Participants in one follow-up study who showed the better-than-average bias insisted that their self-assessments were accurate and objective even after reading a description of how they could have been affected by the relevant bias. Participants in a final study reported their peer’s self-serving attributions regarding test performance to be biased but their own similarly self-serving attributions to be free of bias. The relevance of these phenomena to naïve realism and to conflict, misunderstanding, and dispute resolution is discussed.Keywords
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