Detecting our own blind spot

[Woravut]

In Thinking, Fast and Slow, the author writes "we can be blind to the obvious, and we are also blind to our blindness" (p. 24).
And I agree with the statement.


My question is how we can detect our own blind spot? Is it possible?

[Richard]

I doubt that it's possible to reliably identify your own cognitive blindness (otherwise it wouldn't be a blindness), but I believe that you can monitor some cases of blindness. Simply being aware of the issues (such as by reading Thinking, Fast and Slow) enables you to have the potential to monitor yourself. This isn't the same as monitoring yourself to become unbiased however. As an example, I have a personal favourite theory of cognitive processing (something similar to a spreading activation model but with a fixed number of items being in your consciousness at any given time), and when I read about psychology experiments (honestly, I don't do this very often) I always see if my personal theory can explain the results and it usually does. However, I am aware of the existence of confirmation biases which in my case would mean that I interpret the results in a way that makes them fit my theory. From all this, I am aware that I may be adapting the results so that they fit my theory, and that other people with other theories may adapt the results in a different way. So I think I am monitoring my confirmation bias. However, this monitoring has no real effect on my beliefs at a deep level - despite knowing that I may be misinterpreting results, I still believe in my personal theory.

[justthedave]

Cogito, ergo sum....

[Eric Ambele]

Usually, it's hard, if not impossible to detect your own blindness. However, like Richard said, "you can monitor some cases of blindness", I totally agree.

A question I have though is can other people detect our own blindness? If so, would they be right? What factors might influence their correct/wrong assessment of your own blindness?