People overestimate how widely their own views and habits are shared.
Ross, Greene and House's 1977 study: students asked to wear a sandwich board estimated that most others would make the same choice they had, whichever choice that was.
In practice
- A hiring panel that all found the interview process reasonable concludes candidates find it reasonable.
- A management team that likes the new office layout assumes the staff do, and the survey says otherwise.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Decision-making & Reasoning
- Essay
- The catalogue of predictable errors