A cognitive and metacognitive bias that treats a particular
definition of
truth—usually the Western, Enlightenment-derived conception—as if it were neutral, impartial, and universal, while ignoring the historical, cultural, and political factors that produced it. The Neutral and Impartial Truth Bias presents "
truth" as a pure, contextless concept, erasing the power relations, colonial histories, and social struggles that shaped what counts as
truth in the West. It assumes that Western rationality is just rationality, Western truth is just
truth—not one tradition among many. The bias operates at both individual and collective levels, making it nearly invisible to those who hold it. They don't see themselves as having a truth tradition; they see themselves as having truth itself. Everyone else has culture, bias, perspective. The West has reality.
"Western science discovered
truth; other cultures had beliefs." That's Neutral and Impartial Truth Bias: treating the West's
definition of
truth as truth itself, not as one tradition among many. The speaker didn't see their own historical position; they saw only objectivity. Truth became a possession, not a pursuit—and they owned it."