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Cited by 152Decision-Making and Behavioral EconomicsSocial and Intergroup PsychologyMisinformation and Its Impacts

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The Bias That Divides Us: The Science and Politics of Myside Thinking

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Stanovich, Keith E.·2021·The MIT Press eBooks
DOI 10.7551/mitpress/13367.001.0001
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Abstract

Why we don't live in a post-truth society but rather a myside society: what science tells us about the bias that poisons our politics. In The Bias That Divides Us, psychologist Keith Stanovich argues provocatively that we don't live in a post-truth society, as has been claimed, but rather a myside society. Our problem is not that we are unable to value and respect truth and facts, but that we are unable to agree on commonly accepted truth and facts. We believe that our side knows the truth. Post-truth? That describes the other side. The inevitable result is political polarization. Stanovich shows what science can tell us about myside bias: how common it is, how to avoid it, and what purposes it serves. Stanovich explains that although myside bias is ubiquitous, it is an outlier among cognitive biases. It is unpredictable. Intelligence does not inoculate against it, and myside bias in one domain is not a good indicator of bias shown in any other domain. Stanovich argues that because of its outlier status, myside bias creates a true blind spot among the cognitive elite—those who are high in intelligence, executive functioning, or other valued psychological dispositions. They may consider themselves unbiased and purely rational in their thinking, but in fact they are just as biased as everyone else. Stanovich investigates how this bias blind spot contributes to our current ideologically polarized politics, connecting it to another recent trend: the decline of trust in university research as a disinterested arbiter.

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Authors
Stanovich, K. E.
Corresponding author
Stanovich, Keith E.
ORCID
Stanovich, Keith E.
Venue
The MIT Press eBooks
Publisher
The MIT Press
Published
2021-08-31
DOI
10.7551/mitpress/13367.001.0001
OpenAlex
W4252880621
Cited by
152
References
561
Citations by year
2026: 39 · 2025: 42 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 1
FWCI
22.64
Type
book
Language
en
Open access
Locations
The MIT Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
Keywords
myside bias, confirmation bias, political polarization, post-truth, cognitive biases, bias blind spot, public trust in science, ideological partisanship, rationality

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