Egocentric Bias 🥚
🧠 Psych - 70 / 100
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Let’s continue with Egocentric Bias.
What is it?
A cognitive bias that causes people to rely too heavily on their own point of view when they examine events in their life or when they try to see things from other people’s perspective.
Example -
For example, if you do something embarrassing, the egocentric bias can cause you to overestimate the degree to which other people are likely to notice it, because it can cause you to assume that others are as focused on your actions as you are. [1]
Where does it occur?
Research has shown that experiences, ideas, and beliefs are more easily recalled when they match one's own, causing an egocentric outlook.
Why do I need to know?
The egocentric bias, like other cognitive biases, occurs due to the limitations of our cognitive system, and namely due to the imperfect way we process information.
Specifically, the egocentric bias occurs primarily due to the fact that we spend the vast majority of the time seeing things from our own perspective, so we tend to naturally examine and remember events primarily through our personal point of view.
Accordingly, even when we realize that we should adjust our perspective to see things through other people’s eyes, we tend to anchor this new perspective to our own, and so we often fail to adjust from our original viewpoint enough to properly assess situations.[1]
Takeaways: -
Being self-aware about the bias will make you think next time you are told to see things from others POV.
The egocentric bias can, for example, cause you to overestimate the degree to which others notice your mistakes, or to overestimate the degree to which others agree with your political stance.
References & Studies: -
https://effectiviology.com/egocentric-bias/#Why_people_experience_the_egocentric_bias
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