Center for Behavioral Decision Research

CBDR : Seminar Series : Seminar by Emily Pronin

The Bias Blind Spot: Psychological Dynamics and Social Consequences

	presented by Emily Pronin (Princeton University)


	Thursday, October 26	link to paper
	Noon-1:15
	Porter 223D	link to Speaker's Site

	Abstract:

	Human judgment and decision making is distorted by an array of cognitive, perceptual, and motivational biases. This research concerns recent evidence that people are quite capable of recognizing the operation of bias in human judgment - except when that bias is their own. Aside from the general motive to self-enhance, two primary sources of this "bias blind spot" have been identified. One involves people's heavy weighting of introspective evidence when assessing their own bias, despite the tendency for bias to occur nonconsciously. The other involves people's conviction that their perceptions directly reflect reality, and that those who see things differently are therefore biased. People's tendency to deny their own bias, even while recognizing bias in others, reveals a profound shortcoming in self-awareness with important consequences for interpersonal and intergroup conflict.

	Host at CMU: Jennifer Lerner