Talk:Egocentric bias

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This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Nilabanerjee, Aberger19, Dmassihp.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 20:17, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

definition
The definition of egocentric bias has a good source, yet it is not clear enough. It says: "Egocentric bias is the inclination to overstate changes between the present and the past to make ourselves look better than we actually are." I don't have access to the source, so I can't check if the source is cited in a correct way. However, the part in which I take too much credit for what I have really done, has got lost in this definition. Anybody with a good source who can change the definition, or add to it? Lova Falk    talk   14:23, 1 December 2012 (UTC)

Proposed changes to article
Egocentric bias: Intro (changes to wikipedia article): Egocentric bias is the tendency to overstress changes between the past and present in order to make oneself appear more worthy or competent than one actually is.[1]  It is also known as the false consensus effect, describing situations in which people overestimate the degree that others agree with their beliefs. Based on results from past studies, there is evidence that cognitive and perceptual mechanisms cause these false beliefs. According to the results from several conducted studies, individuals are also more likely to favor circumstances that are beneficial to themselves compared to those that favor to the people around them.[2] Most of the studies in this area of research are done by asking test subjects questions about a certain topic and rating how much others would agree with them. A related concept is self-serving bias, in which one is biased toward taking credit for achievements and blaming external sources for losses. In addition, attributional theory, analyzes how people behave based on the information around them. Most studies looking at attributional theory exclude the initial phases, in which people acquire, code, and recall information from their memory. However, psychologists such as Lee Ross, David Greene, and Pamela House use attributional theory and this initial pre-processing phase to analyze the effects of egocentric bias. These studies have shown that people believe that others will act and think like they do. Michael Ross and Fiore Sicoly first identified this cognitive bias in their 1979 paper, "Egocentric biases in availability and attribution".[3][4] Sources added: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/002210317790049X http://ac.els-cdn.com/002210317790049X/1-s2.0-002210317790049X-main.pdf?_tid=d4c2a44a-a0aa-11e6-a305-00000aacb35d&acdnat=1478056806_5d514f48a1ad85a6771b9db594b2213e

Analysis Egocentric bias is considered by Daniel Schacter one of the "seven sins" of memory and essentially reflects the prominent role played by the self when encoding and retrieving episodic memories. For instance, an egocentric bias is displayed when a fisherman "remembers" catching bigger fish than he had actually caught in reality. Here, it becomes clear that this type of bias is fundamentally a memory distortion produced by current knowledge and beliefs, and leads one to remember the past in a self-enhancing manner.[5] Besides simply claiming credit for positive outcomes, which might simply be self-serving bias, people exhibiting egocentric bias also cite themselves as overly responsible for negative outcomes of group behavior as well (however, this last attribute would seem to be lacking in megalomania). This may be because people's own actions are immediately accessible to them than others' actions. This is an example of what is called the availability heuristic. This bias suggests that people remember the past as they want it to be rather than the way it was, making themselves look good in retrospect.[1] Egocentric bias in estimates of consensus could be interpreted to support and/or justify one's feelings that their own behavioral choices are appropriate, normal or correct.[6] Motivational factors may also be a factor; one's sense of self-esteem may be enhanced by focusing on, or weighting more heavily, one's own inputs. People's own inputs and contributions tend to be more available (and more likely to be recalled) than the contributions of others.[3] One study found that egocentric bias influences perceived fairness. Subjects felt that overpayment to themselves were more fair than overpayment to others; by contrast, they felt the underpayment to themselves were less fair than underpayment to others. Greenberg's studies showed that this egocentrism was eliminated when the subjects were put in a self-aware state, which was applied in his study with a mirror being placed in front of the subjects. When a person is not self-aware, they perceive that something can be fair to them but not necessarily fair to others. Therefore, fairness was something biased and subjective. When a person is self-aware, there is a uniform standard of fairness and there is no bias. When made self-aware, subjects rated overpayment and underpayment to both themselves and to others as equally unfair. It is believed that these results were obtained because self-awareness elevated subjects' concerns about perceived fairness in payment, thereby overriding egocentric tendencies.[2] Egocentric bias has influenced ethical judgements to the point where people not only believe that self-interested outcomes are preferential but are also the morally sound way to proceed.[citation needed] In social context, egocentric bias influences people to choose a social circle that is capable of maintaining one's positive traits. Study shows that one's choice of friend or social circle is likely to be dependent on the amount of positive feedback received.[7] Egocentric bias may have evolved from hunter-gatherer times, in which communities were small and interdependent enough that individuals could assume that others around them had very similar outlooks. An egocentric view would have reduced cognitive load and increased communication efficiency. Citation: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10539-015-9512-0

Recent Studies Recent studies of egocentric bias have been done in many different subgroups of people, such as those with autism and billingual people. A study done by Paula Rubio-Fernández and Sam Glucksberg found that bilingual people are less prone to egocentric bias because they have grown to pay more attention to others’ thoughts. Thus, it is less difficult for them to differentiate between their own opinions and those of others.

Sources added: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/xlm/38/1/211/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dmassihp (talk • contribs) 03:48, 2 November 2016 (UTC)

Link to social project
Here is a link to a relatively up-to-date review & meta-analysis of literature on social project. This article claims that social project is the smae as false consensus. One useful improviement to the current article would be to make clear the relationships between egocentric bias, false consensus and social projection.

Robbins, J. M., & Krueger, J. I. (2005). Social projection to ingroups and outgroups: A review and meta-analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 9(1), 32-47. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.470.8102&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Robertekraut (talk) 16:01, 7 November 2016 (UTC)

Drive-by ref addition
Removed from the article, since it was just tacked into the refs section, but copy/pasting here in case editors of this article find it useful:

&mdash; Rhododendrites  talk \\ 13:22, 29 May 2019 (UTC)