The Bias Blind Spot
It’s been well documented that we see the
world through biased glasses. And yet even as we acknowledge that
bias exists and can see it in others, we are slow to acknowledge
how bias shapes our own views.
Research shows, in fact, that people rate themselves
less subject to bias than the average American. Princeton psychologist
Emily Pronin, along with psychologists Daniel Lin and Lee Ross of
Stanford University, present their findings in “The Bias Blind
Spot: Perceptions in Bias in Self Versus Others,” published
in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, in March,
2002 (Vol. 23, No. 3).
In two studies using surveys of students and airport
travelers, participants consistently rated either the average American
or their peers as having substantial more bias than themselves.
Even after reading a paragraph that noted how
“70-80% of individuals consistently rate themselves…as
having ‘less than average’ amounts of characteristics
they believe are negative,” participants still rated themselves
as less biased.
A third study involved using a bogus test of social
intelligence to determine whether participants viewed the test as
valid or invalid, based on their performance. Following testing,
researchers gave participants false feedback indicating that they
had scored either high or low on the test.
As anticipated, participants who were assigned
high scores saw the test as more valid than the participants who
were assigned low scores. When asked to consider their partner’s
evaluation of the test, participants were much more likely to see
bias in their partner than in themselves.
“Our contention is that in most cases people
do indeed expect that others will share their views,” the
researchers conclude. “But, when these others fail to do so,
people are likely to see those with whom they disagree as unreasonable
and as unable to view things in an objective manner.”