Myside bias refers to the tendency for individuals to evaluate, seek, and interpret evidence in ways that favor their pre‑existing beliefs, attitudes, or opinions. Rather than objectively considering all sides of an issue, people selectively generate and accept arguments that support their own position while discounting or ignoring opposing viewpoints. This bias is closely related to confirmation bias but is typically defined more narrowly as biased reasoning specifically in support of one’s own stance on an issue. Research shows that myside bias occurs across a wide range of reasoning tasks and is not strongly predicted by intelligence or cognitive ability.
Research brief
Stanovich, K. E., & West, R. F. (2007). Natural myside bias is independent of cognitive ability. Thinking & Reasoning, 13(3), 225–247.
This study demonstrates that individuals consistently show myside bias when generating arguments for controversial issues, and importantly, that this bias is largely unrelated to measures of intelligence—suggesting that myside bias is a pervasive feature of human reasoning rather than a deficit in cognitive capacity.
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