Synopsis
A cognitive psychology study arguing that myside bias — the tendency to evaluate evidence in ways that favour one's prior beliefs — is universal, independent of intelligence, and uncorrected by education. Stanovich shows that neither liberals nor conservatives score differently on myside bias measures; smarter people are simply more resourceful rationalisers. He distinguishes myside bias from tribalism and proposes that epistemic humility, not more information, is the democratic remedy.
Core passage idea
Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted workHigher cognitive ability does not reduce myside bias — it merely enables more sophisticated defences of the position the mind already held.
It dismantles the assumption that one's own political tribe reasons more objectively. No side holds the epistemic privilege it claims, which makes polarisation a structural feature of human cognition rather than a moral failing unique to the opposition.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind.
Reading note
Read it alongside Haidt's Righteous Mind: Haidt maps the moral foundations that generate tribal allegiance; Stanovich explains the cognitive mechanism that makes each tribe confident in its own objectivity.
Best paired with
Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind