Hypothesized drivers of the bias blind spot—cognitive sophistication, introspection bias, and conversational processes

Individuals often assess themselves as being less susceptible to common biases compared to others. This bias blind spot (BBS) is thought to represent a metacognitive error. In this research, we tested three explanations for the effect: The cognitive sophistication hypothesis posits that individuals...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Judgment and decision making 2022-11, Vol.17 (6), p.1392-1421
Main Authors: David R. Mandel, Robert C. Collins, Alexander C. Walker, Jonathan A. Fugelsang, Evan F. Risko
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
bias blind spot
cognitive ability
conversational processesnakeywords
introspection
metacognition
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Summary:Individuals often assess themselves as being less susceptible to common biases compared to others. This bias blind spot (BBS) is thought to represent a metacognitive error. In this research, we tested three explanations for the effect: The cognitive sophistication hypothesis posits that individuals who display the BBS more strongly are actually less biased than others. The introspection bias hypothesis posits that the BBS occurs because people rely on introspection more when assessing themselves compared to others. The conversational processes hypothesis posits that the effect is largely a consequence of the pragmatic aspects of the experimental situation rather than true metacognitive error. In two experiments (N = 1057) examining 18 social/motivational and cognitive biases, there was strong evidence of the BBS. Among the three hypotheses examined, the conversational processes hypothesis attracted the is a metacognitive effect.
ISSN:1930-2975
1930-2975