Egocentric bias refers to the tendency to interpret the world primarily through one’s own point of view while underestimating or ignoring the perspective of others. People assume that their thoughts, emotions, and experiences are more visible, influential, or important than they actually are.
EXAMPLE
Imagine attending a formal dinner and accidentally spilling food on your clothes. You may feel embarrassed and believe everyone noticed. In reality, most guests are engaged in their own conversations and barely register the incident.
Your brain magnifies your experience because you are the centre of your awareness. This is how egocentric bias works.
Although egocentric bias is natural, it can become problematic when it leads to poor judgment, reduced empathy, and distorted memories.
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What is Egocentric Bias?
Egocentric bias is a type of cognitive bias in which individuals rely excessively on their own perspective when analysing events, recalling memories, or making judgements. It causes people to overestimate their importance, visibility, or contribution relative to others.
This bias stems from a basic psychological reality: we experience the world from inside our own minds. As a result, our thoughts feel more intense, our actions seem more noticeable, and our opinions feel more valid than those of others.
Egocentric bias affects everyone at some point in life. It influences social interactions, workplace behaviour, leadership decisions, and even academic research, often leading to research bias when scholars overestimate the importance of their own assumptions.
When does egocentric bias appear?
Egocentric bias commonly appears when:
- People exaggerate the impact of their opinions in group discussions.
- Individuals remember events in a way that highlights their own role.
- Someone assumes others think or feel the same way they do.
Causes of Egocentric Bias
Here are the key causes of egocentric bias:
1. Limited perspective
Many people have a 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 those of others.
2. Other cognitive biases
Other cognitive biases also cause egocentric bias. For instance, confirmation bias leads people to interpret information in ways that confirm their pre-existing opinions. Anchoring bias will enable people to rely on initial information by ignoring other evidence. However, self-serving bias helps people to protect their self-esteem.
3. Self-praise protection
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, allowing them to praise themselves.
4. Comparison with others
When people compare themselves to others, this 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.
5. Social and cultural 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.
Why is egocentric bias a problem?
Egocentric bias becomes problematic when it interferes with social harmony, collaboration, and rational thinking. People who consistently overvalue their own perspective may:
- Appear arrogant or dismissive
- Struggle with teamwork and cooperation
- Make self-serving decisions
- Show reduced empathy and emotional intelligence
- Damage to trust in personal and professional relationships
In leadership and research contexts, egocentric bias can lead to flawed decisions, overconfidence, and resistance to feedback, ultimately harming outcomes.
Egocentric Bias vs Self-Serving Bias
| Egocentric Bias | Self-Serving Bias |
|---|---|
| The tendency to rely heavily on one’s perspective and overestimate how much others notice or are influenced by us. | The tendency to attribute successes to internal factors and failures to external factors. |
| It focuses on perspective and perception. | It focuses on outcomes and responsibility. |
| It is driven by limited perspective-taking and self-focus. | It is driven by self-esteem protection and ego enhancement. |
| Overemphasises one’s own viewpoint in interpreting events. | Credits self for success, blames circumstances for failure. |
| It reduces empathy and understanding of others’ viewpoints. | It creates defensiveness and a lack of accountability. |
| Closely related to the spotlight effect and the curse of knowledge. | Closely related to optimism bias and overconfidence bias. |
| Example: “Thinking everyone noticed your mistake during a presentation”. |
Example: “Taking credit for a promotion but blaming bad luck for poor results”. |
Tips to Reduce Egocentric Bias
Here are the essential tips to reduce egocentric bias:
Tip 1: 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.
Tip 2: Practice 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.
Tip 3: Cultivate 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 as they think. It also makes them humble and empathetic to others.
Tip 4: Explore alternative perspectives
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.
Tip 5: Use 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 judgments.
The basic debiasing techniques involve slowing down your reasoning and seeking feedback from others on your thought process. It also enables you to consider alternative perspectives.
How to reduce egocentric bias effectively?
Follow these tips:
- Develop awareness
- Practice self-distancing
- Cultivate mindfulness
- Explore alternative perspectives
- Use debiasing techniques
Egocentric Bias Examples
These examples of egocentric bias will immensely help you to understand this concept thoroughly:
Example 1: Egocentric Bias During Public Speaking
Imagine you’re speaking publicly at a university event or 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 than on seeing the situation from someone else’s perspective.
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 your colleagues often use. After some time, those terms will become part of your repertoire.
Now, when you use these items with prospective clients, they won’t be able to understand them properly. This is known as the curse of knowledge. When people become aware of something, they often forget that others might not be. This is frequently seen in the workplace.
Egocentric Bias vs Healthy Self-Confidence
It is important to distinguish egocentric bias from confidence. Confidence is grounded in evidence and openness to feedback. Egocentric bias, however, distorts perception and resists alternative viewpoints.
Balanced self-awareness, not self-centredness, is a key to effective decision-making.
Frequently Asked Questions
Egocentric bias is the tendency to rely too much on one’s perspective to examine events. It enables people to underestimate and ignore the perspective of others. They recall events to enhance their importance.
The egocentric bias depends on the psychological need to satisfy one’s ego. People spend a lot of time in their lives seeing and examining things from their perspectives. So, due to that, they are naturally compelled to examine and remember events from their point of view. This is how egocentric bias occurs.
There are several steps to avoid egocentric bias. Egocentric bias can be reduced efficiently by following these steps.
- By developing awareness about egocentric bias
- By implementing self-distancing
- By using mindfulness
No. Egocentric bias is a cognitive tendency that affects everyone, while narcissism is a personality trait that involves excessive self-importance.
Yes. Researchers may overvalue their hypotheses, ignore contradictory data, or misinterpret results due to egocentric bias.
