Effects of Experiencing Visual Illusions and Susceptibility to Biases in One’s Social Judgments

Ayumi Kambara

doi:10.1177/2158244017745937

Abstract

Despite the evidence for existing biases in social judgment, people often fail to recognize biases in their own social judgments. This study investigated whether people become aware of their own susceptibility to various biases by experiencing visual illusions that challenge confidence in personal perceptions. A total of 88 participants were grouped by whether or not they gazed at illusory motion graphics and by whether they rated themselves or others on bias susceptibility. Participants who gazed at visual illusions rated themselves as having more biases in their social judgments than participants who did not see visual illusions. These findings suggest that bias denial may partially result from insufficient opportunities to recognize inaccuracies in personal perceptions.

Highlights

As research has shown in the past few decades, a person’s social judgment is often influenced by motivational and cognitive biases that compromise objectivity in social perceptions
Despite this evidence of existing biases in social judgment, people often fail to recognize those biases in their own social judgments, even while they detect them in judgments made by others
Participants were randomly divided into four groups: (a) visual illusion exposure-Rating of Self (n = 22), (b) no exposure-Rating of Self (n = 22), (c) visual illusion exposure-Rating of Other (n = 21), and (d) no exposure-Rating of Other (n = 23)

Summary

Introduction

As research has shown in the past few decades, a person’s social judgment is often influenced by motivational and cognitive biases that compromise objectivity in social perceptions (for reviews, see Gilovich, 1991; Nisbett & Ross, 1980) Despite this evidence of existing biases in social judgment, people often fail to recognize those biases in their own social judgments, even while they detect them in judgments made by others (bias blind spot: Pronin, Lin, & Ross, 2002). It is plausible to assume that people will not notice their susceptibility to biases without confronting clear demonstrations of their own false or inaccurate perceptions

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