TY - JOUR
T1 - People Claim Objectivity After Knowingly Using Biased Strategies
AU - Hansen, Katherine
AU - Gerbasi, Margaret
AU - Todorov, Alexander
AU - Kruse, Elliott
AU - Pronin, Emily
PY - 2014/6
Y1 - 2014/6
N2 - People tend not to recognize bias in their judgments. Such "bias blindness" persists, we show, even when people acknowledge that the judgmental strategies preceding their judgments are biased. In Experiment 1, participants took a test, received failure feedback, and then were led to assess the test's quality via an explicitly biased strategy (focusing on the test's weaknesses), an explicitly objective strategy, or a strategy of their choice. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants rated paintings using an explicitly biased or explicitly objective strategy. Across the three experiments, participants who used a biased strategy rated it as relatively biased, provided biased judgments, and then claimed to be relatively objective. Participants in Experiment 3 also assessed how biased they expected to be by their strategy, prior to using it. These pre-ratings revealed that not only did participants' sense of personal objectivity survive using a biased strategy, it grew stronger.
AB - People tend not to recognize bias in their judgments. Such "bias blindness" persists, we show, even when people acknowledge that the judgmental strategies preceding their judgments are biased. In Experiment 1, participants took a test, received failure feedback, and then were led to assess the test's quality via an explicitly biased strategy (focusing on the test's weaknesses), an explicitly objective strategy, or a strategy of their choice. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants rated paintings using an explicitly biased or explicitly objective strategy. Across the three experiments, participants who used a biased strategy rated it as relatively biased, provided biased judgments, and then claimed to be relatively objective. Participants in Experiment 3 also assessed how biased they expected to be by their strategy, prior to using it. These pre-ratings revealed that not only did participants' sense of personal objectivity survive using a biased strategy, it grew stronger.
KW - bias blind spot
KW - bias correction
KW - mental contamination
KW - objectivity illusion
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84901035245&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1177/0146167214523476
DO - 10.1177/0146167214523476
M3 - Article
C2 - 24562289
AN - SCOPUS:84901035245
SN - 0146-1672
VL - 40
SP - 691
EP - 699
JO - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
JF - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
IS - 6
ER -