A newly detected bias in self-evaluation

PLoS One. 2024 Feb 8;19(2):e0296383. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0296383. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

The widely observed positive bias on self-evaluation is mainly explained by the self-enhancement motivation which minimizes negative feedbacks and emphasizes positive ones. Recent agent based simulations suggest that a positive bias also emerges if the sensitivity to feedbacks decreases when the self-evaluation increases. This paper proposes a simple mathematical model in which these different biases are integrated. Moreover, it describes an experiment (N = 1509) confirming that the sensitivity to feedbacks tends to decrease when self-evaluation increases and that a directly related positive bias is detected.

MeSH terms

  • Bias
  • Diagnostic Self Evaluation*
  • Motivation
  • Self-Assessment*

Grants and funding

In complement to our earlier statement that “the research has been partly supported by the French National Research Agency through the grant number ANR-18-ORAR-0003-01 (ToRealSim project)”, we confirm again that there was no additional external funding received for this study. Moreover, the funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.