• DOI:10.1177/0146167202286008
• Corpus ID: 14259317

The Bias Blind Spot: Perceptions of Bias in Self Versus Others

@article{Pronin2002TheBB,
  title={The Bias Blind Spot: Perceptions of Bias in Self Versus Others},
  author={Emily Pronin and Daniel Y. Lin and Lee D. Ross},
  journal={Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin},
  year={2002},
  volume={28},
  pages={369 - 381}
}

• E. Pronin, Daniel Y. Lin, L. Ross
• Published 1 March 2002
• Psychology
• Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

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.