Projection of Objectivity

A cognitive bias where one projects the claim of objectivity onto one's own perspective while denying it to others—assuming that one's own views are simply "how things are" while everyone else is biased, ideological, or subjective. Projection of objectivity operates when someone says "I'm not biased, I just see things clearly" while describing opponents as hopelessly biased; when they present their own position as neutral and others' as partisan; when they claim to speak from nowhere while everyone else speaks from somewhere. The projection lies in the blindness to one's own situatedness—the assumption that one's own perspective is the perspective, that one's own values are just common sense, that one's own framework is simply reality. It's the deepest form of bias: the bias of believing oneself unbiased.

Example: "He described his own views as 'objective' and everyone else's as 'biased'—projection of objectivity, assuming that his perspective was the view from nowhere while everyone else was hopelessly situated."

Projection of Objectivity by Dumu The Void March 19, 2026