What Causes Egocentric Bias – A Complete Guide with Examples

Do you see people in your daily life who rely too much upon their own perspectives for decision-making? Then, they might be suffering from egocentric bias. Relying on your thoughts and opinions for your decisions is normal but too much self-centredness negatively impacts the life of people.

Every human being once or more in their lifetime becomes a prey to egocentric bias. You might also have a memory of an embarrassing moment in your life. During that moment, you might’ve thought that everyone paid heed to your actions. But that could not be the reality. This is all just because of the thought process influenced by egocentric bias that causes people to be more self-centred.

The egocentric bias also significantly affects decision-making in researchers, which leads to research bias.

What is Egocentric Bias?

According to egocentric bias, people can either underestimate what other people think or totally ignore their perception. This bias significantly causes people to make self-serving decisions. Those decisions are only based on their own perspective.

The egocentric bias depends on the instinctive psychological desire to satisfy your ego. It doesn’t matter how humble anyone can be; everyone is biased towards self-centredness. Humans are not just social, but also lonely animals. They do everything to survive.

Egocentric Bias Definition

The egocentric bias can be made clear in different ways.

• When people are having a discussion in a group, they tend to exaggerate their opinions to highlight their importance and make an impact on the views of others.
• When a piece of information is self-centred, it can be easily remembered.
• People often overestimate while sharing their opinions and preferences.

Egocentric Bias Example

Why is Egocentric Bias a Problem?

The egocentric bias is a significant problem because egocentric people focus too much on their own perceptions and opinions. It makes them less empathic and unable to recognise the opinions of others. They might have arrogant behaviour and can manipulate people to get what they want.

People with egocentric bias have an excessive need for entitlement and recognition. They see themselves as extraordinary and worthy. They are lost in the thoughts of achieving extra success, power and beauty.

Due to these various reasons, egocentric bias negatively impacts the trust and intimacy of the people. Also, people with egocentric bias are unable to collaborate or do team work efficiently. Thus, it makes the egocentric bias a major problem.

Causes of Egocentric Bias

The egocentric bias occurs mainly in how people organise and process their information. There are various causes of egocentric bias. Here are some of them:

• Limited Perspective

Many people have limited perspective because of limited experiences. Due to this limited perspective, they interpret different events in a biased way. They prefer their thoughts, beliefs and experiences over others.

• Other Cognitive Biases

Other cognitive biases also cause egocentric bias. For example, confirmation bias allows people to interpret information in a way that confirms their pre-existing opinions. Moreover, anchoring bias will enable people to rely on initial information by ignoring other evidence.

• Self-Praise

Self-praise is also a cause of egocentric bias. The people want to protect their image and self-esteem by interpreting the information according to their abilities and accomplishments. This bias enables them to self-validate so they can self-praise themselves.

• Comparison to Others

When people compare themselves to other people, it can also be a significant cause of egocentric bias. People often compare themselves with others who are more successful and self-accomplished to increase their self-worth.

This behaviour causes people to be biased because they overestimate their abilities and believe that they are better than others in a specific way.

• Social Factors

Social and cultural factors can also cause egocentric bias. The main reason is that cultural values emphasise individualism, independence, and personal achievement. These various factors can cause people to develop a self-centred mindset.

Tips to Reduce Egocentric Bias

The reduction of egocentric bias can be very useful for a variety of situations. It also helps people to understand information and ideas from the perspectives of others. The tips to reduce egocentric bias are given as follows:

• Develop Awareness

The first step to reducing egocentric bias is to develop awareness. Developing awareness involves knowing what egocentric bias is, how it affects people, why it occurs, and how it influences our thinking.

• Implement Self-distancing

Self-distancing is the act of increasing your distance from your perspective while assessing events or situations. You should determine any situation by thinking about yourself using a second-person pronoun instead of a first-person pronoun.

• Mindfulness

Mindfulness is also an effective tip to reduce egocentric bias. When you become aware of your own thoughts, feelings and surrounding environment, you can efficiently control them and influence them depending on the circumstances.

Mindfulness enables people to perceive their faults and fallacies while thinking. It also makes them humble and empathetic to others.

• Explore Alternatives

The egocentric bias can also be reduced by exploring alternative points of view. You should visualise certain situations from someone else’s perspective. You should also consider the arguments that contradict your existing stance. These tips can be highly effective in reducing egocentric bias.

For example, you might get into a fight with a friend. You might imagine their perception to understand why they argued and shouted the way they did.

• Debiasing Techniques

Debiasing is the process of reducing the influence of cognitive biases. It helps people to think more rationally and optimally. These techniques interrupt the unconscious decision-making processes and judgements.

The basic debiasing techniques involve slowing down your reasoning and asking others for feedback on your thought process. It also enables you to consider alternative perspectives. This technique can significantly help to reduce egocentric bias.

Egocentric Bias Examples

The egocentric bias can be observed in many areas of life. These examples of egocentric bas will immensely help you to understand this concept thoroughly:

Example 1: Egocentric Bias During Public Speaking

Imagine you’re publicly speaking at a university event or a convention. Initially, you can notice that you’re nervous during the speech. You will ultimately be compelled to think that your nervousness is also apparent to the audience. But that would not be the case.

In fact, none of your nervousness will be visible to the audience. This happens due to your egocentric bias. You will be more focused on your anxieties rather than seeing the situation from someone else’s eyes.

Example 2: Egocentric Bias in the Workplace

Imagine you just started working in a new company. At first, you may not be familiar with the company’s jargon and acronyms, which are often used by your colleagues. After some time, those terms will become part of your repertoire.

Now, when you use these items for your prospective clients, they won’t be able to understand properly. This is known as the curse of knowledge. When people become aware of something, they forget that others might not be aware of that. This is often seen in the workplace.

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