Bias Blind Spot

Of all the biases in this book, this one is the container: the firm belief that biases exist — in other people.

It is easy to see the politician's prejudice, the neighbour's vanity, the colleague's self-dealing. It is genuinely hard to see our own, and the reason is architectural. A bias operates below awareness — that is what makes it a bias. So we inspect others by their visible behaviour and ourselves by our invisible intentions, and conclude, sincerely, that we are the exception.

Every mind believes this of itself. Logically, most must be wrong. The odds that you are the exception are the odds that everyone believes they are.

The practical move is to reverse the default. When you catch yourself cataloguing someone else's irrationality, spend one minute asking: where is mine in this very judgment? The blind spot does not shrink by being denied. It shrinks by being assumed.