Psychologist's fallacy
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The psychologist's fallacy is a logical fallacy that occurs when an observer presupposes the objectivity of his own perspective (through his own cultural memes) when analyzing a behavioral event. The fallacy was named by William James.
- The great snare of the psychologist is the confusion of his own standpoint with that of the mental fact about which he is making his report. I shall hereafter call this the ‘psychologist's fallacy’ par excellence. (WILLIAM JAMES, Principles of Psychology I. vii. 196, 1890 )
- Psychologist's fallacy, the fallacy, to which the psychologist is peculiarly liable, of reading into the mind he is examining what is true of his own; especially of reading into lower minds what is true of higher. (BALDWIN, Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology II. 382/2, 1902 )
- A danger to be avoided known as the ‘psychologist's fallacy’. This arises from the fact that the experimenter is apt to suppose that the subject will respond to a stimulus or an order in the same way as he himself would respond in the circumstances. (British Journal of Psychology. XXI. 243, 1931)
The psychologist's fallacy is considered analogous to David Hackett Fischer's historian's fallacy.
