People assume they see reality objectively and that dissenters must be uninformed or biased.
Ross's term. The three-step consequence is the interesting part: the dissenter is first assumed uninformed, then assumed irrational, then assumed malicious — in that order.
In practice
- A manager concludes the dissenting team member has not understood the strategy, then that they are being difficult, then that they are undermining it.
- Two departments each believe the other is briefing against them, and both are reading the same neutral email.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Decision-making & Reasoning
- Essay
- Why reasoning works the way it does