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Micah Miller

ENG COMP II 1201

Prof. Colvin

3/26/2020-4/11/2020

Why are Humans so Egocentric?

In a hypothetical workplace, in a hypothetical reality, there is a man named Bob. Bob is

happily married to Jane, and they live in a small house with two children. They both work during

the day while their kids are at school. Joe, their eldest son, needs to be picked up at six from

band practice, and today is Bob’s turn. However, Bob had a rough day at work. He was late

getting in an assignment because his coworkers were rather noisy and distracting. His boss was

unsympathetic and gave him a strong lecture. By the end of the day he was grumpy and didn’t

want to hear anything from anyone else. On his way home, he realizes that he still needs to pick

up Joe from band practice, but he really isn’t feeling like it. He calls his wife and asks her to pick

up Joe that day, but she reminds him that she, “Has a meeting today and won’t be home until

seven”. Joe grumbles and picks up his son, who immediately notices his father’s bad mood and

stays quiet. Later that night when Jane gets home and the kids are in bed, they get into an

argument. The conversation is not resolved, and now Joe and Jane are somewhat less happily

married. Joe was unable to recognize Jane’s opinion because he was concentrating so much on

himself that he could not see that he might be wrong. Humanity’s natural tendency to value its

own opinions to the disregard of others is primarily a result of a radicalized form of egocentrism.
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This egocentrism, although it occurs naturally, can be influenced in one direction or another by

environmental factors.

Egocentrism is credited to have been discovered by Jean Piaget in the 1920s as a part of

his studies on cognitive development in children. According to Piaget, children under three have

no knowledge that opposing perspectives exist from their own. This perception of reality tends to

shift by age seven. Beyond Piaget, the field of egocentrism has been developed significantly in

regards to social heuristics and cognitive biases that are retained even in adults. Examples

include the curse-of-knowledge effect and the illusion of transparency (Pronin, Brittanica).

The first point to be made is that studies have shown egocentric cognitive biases are

present in adults to various degrees. This can be seen especially in today’s age of social media

such as YouTube and Facebook, all of which are primarily focused on the individual. Another

example, according to Mel Schwartz in an article for Psychology Today is that, “Our educational

system is rooted in the construct of right and wrong. We are rewarded for what are deemed to be

correct answers and the ensuing higher grades, which generally lead to more successful lives.”

Concentrating on one’s own view of right and wrong above others is by definition an egocentric

cognitive bias. When this mindset is applied to the whole of society, it leads to an increase of

radicalized egocentric mindsets within the population.

The Study, “Are People Excessive or Judicious in Their Egocentrism? A Modeling

Approach to Understanding Bias and Accuracy in Peoples Optimism”, by Paul D. Windschitl,

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gives an accurate representation of this. In his study, Windschitl examines naturally success-

driven environments such as competitions to examine how participants view themselves. He

concluded that participants tend to be egocentric when judging their success rate, where

overconfidence leads to over-optimism and under-confidence to pessimism (Windschitl pg. 253).

Egocentrism was shown to have benefits towards accuracy of guessing individual skill, but was

present in excessive levels, which confirms the conclusion that egocentric cognitive bias exists

naturally within adults (Windschitl pg. 253).

Although people have a tendency towards egocentric bias, it can be present in varying

magnitudes. Some people might have low levels of egocentric bias, such as a soldier who throws

himself on a grenade to save his squadron. Others might have larger amounts of egocentric bias,

such as Bob in the anecdote presented earlier. Interestingly, a good balance of egocentric bias

has correlations to happiness. According to Rob Henderson, who was describing a survey he led

in Psychology Today, “The people who emerged as high on both self-focused and partner-

prioritizing scores seemed better off than everybody else. When asked how happy they felt in the

moment, 49 percent were ‘very happy’, or a 5 on a scale of 1 to 5” (Henderson, Psychology

Today).

What happens when Egocentrism is radicalized? Obviously, a person becomes

increasingly self-oriented in their view of the world. However, there are also several other side-

effects: 1) One is more likely to seek rational justification for their views and actions, 2) They

will start to apply such justifications towards their worldview, and 3) They will use such a
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worldview to justify their actions. Such justification is often an internalized, or unconscious

form, of Psychological Egoism.

Psychological Egoism is the concept that every action or behavior is motivated purely on

self-interested principles (May, Psychological Egoism). It is mainly associated with the

philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and Jeremy Bentham. However, Psychological Egoism has been

rejected by most philosophers after refutations by the arguments of Joseph Butler. Nevertheless,

it still can be seen as a part of the basis for some sciences, such as psychology (May,

Psychological Egoism).

Unconsciously applying the concepts of Psychological Egoism can be a result of

radicalized egocentrism. Since one’s focus slowly becomes limited to the self, so does one’s

motivations and actions primarily reflect themself. Any creation of a worldview by the

radicalized egocentric to explain the world they live in, consciously or unconsciously, will be

influenced by such an innate fixation. Psychological Egoism becomes so tantalizing since it

explains all actions and motivations primarily solely based on self-centered motivations. When

used to justify self-centered actions, subsets of Psychological Egoism (such as ethical egoism)

are used to convince oneself of the morality of their actions.

The application of Psychological Egoism and Egocentrism to one’s foundational

worldview leads to actions which disregard the opinions of others. Since one’s primary objective

is to fulfil self-centered desires, the opinions of others will be disregarded if it is concluded to be

contrary to those desires. If a person’s motivation is the self, and another person’s idea is not
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aligned the first person’s, then the first person will ignore the idea of the second by logical

extension. Since the second person’s will contradicts the worldview of the first person, they will

ignore the view of the second person.

A more in-depth understanding of what this might look like in a real-life scenario is the

original scenario presented in the beginning of the essay. Bob, like everyone, has egocentric

tendencies developed in childhood, although they tend to be towards basic things such as

fulfilling his basic desires. When Bob had a hard day at work (The environmental factor), his

egocentric bias was boosted. He didn’t want to have to do anything else that day after all the

trouble he had been through. His focus was completely shifted on what he wanted to do. When

something came up that required him to do something that he didn’t want to do, controversy

arises. In this specific scenario, Bob’s egocentrism was not large enough to not pick up his son

from practice, however it damaged his mood enough that it caused tension with his relationships.

In more extreme cases, where egocentric bias is so large it consumes the motivation of a person,

an ultimate justification is needed in order to convince oneself that egocentric actions are moral.

The most logical conclusion to make to achieve this justification is that every action is based on

egocentric bias anyway, so there is no difference between action x and y. This is the basis of how

an unconscious belief in psychological egoism develops.

Ultimately, this explains why humans are so egocentric. Although egocentrism develops

naturally during cognitive development, environmental factors can affect its magnitude either

positively, or negatively. Social systems like those in the US are dispositioned towards
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increasing egocentrism more often than naught. Thus, it is not surprising that egocentric actions

are seen more and more often.

A possible misconception is to conclude that Egocentrism and Psychological Egoism are

the same thing. This conclusion is flawed in regards to several reasons, the first being the

definitions of Egocentrism and Psychological Egoism. Egocentrism is a term that describes

behavior which is ego-centered, especially in correlation with child cognitive development.

Psychological Egoism on the other hand is the philosophy that all actions are motivated by self-

centered principles. In other words, one is describing types of behavior, and the other is a

philosophy.

Note that Psychological Egoism has certain limitations in regards to evaluating and

understand altruistic motives. Joseph Butler famously argued that one must desire things other

than one’s own welfare in order to get welfare. Another limitation as argued by Robert Shaver in

his entry of Egoism in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, is that according to

Psychological Egoism, a soldier who pushes another soldier onto a grenade is equally selfish as a

soldier who throws themselves willingly onto a grenade (Shaver, Stanford Encyclopedia). Thus,

the Psychological Egoist will have a hard time understanding arguments based on altruism, since

they deny the existence of such motives. This ultimately leads to more self-centered actions.

Of course, a counter-argument could be presented by the Psychological Egoist, that since

all actions are indeed self-centered it is trivial to attempt to explain a difference between

magnitudes of egocentrism as opposed to altruism. In empathic based situations such as the

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scenario presented above which a soldier either pushes another soldier onto a grenade, or throws

himself on it, the Egoist claims both motives are equally egoistic. However, according to

empirical evidence, assumptions of egoism such as these is rejected by the scientific community.

C. Daniel Batson in his study Is Empathic Emotion a Source of Altruistic Motivation? Tested this

concept. In the study, subjects were forced to watch another female subject receive electrical

shocks, and choose whether or not to receive the last shock themselves (Batson, 290). Batson

concluded that: “Results of each experiment followed the former pattern when empathy was high

and the latter pattern when empathy was low, supporting the hypothesis that empathy leads to

altruistic rather than egoistic motivation to help” (Batson, 290).

Another possible counter-argument is that Egocentrism is not necessarily a bad thing.

After all, there are plenty of things that humans do which are naturally egocentric such as self-

care. This objection is well made, and not entirely wrong. However, the main argument is not

that Egocentrism is bad, but that Egocentrism at large magnitudes can prevent altruistic behavior.

Thus, this objection is just a misconception of the thesis, and although under its own premise it is

valid, it does not apply to the argument being presented here.

The final question that remains is whether or not egocentric tendencies are based

primarily in environmental circumstances or are also caused by any additional factors. According

to Jean Piaget, egocentrism is extremely present during the first two years of childhood, and is

then grown out of by age seven (Encyclopedia Britannica). This insinuates that egocentrism is

primarily affected by environmental factors as our brains develop.

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In conclusion, egocentrism is present naturally in the developmental stages in children,

and its magnitude is affected by environmental and social factors. Radicalized egocentrism can

lead to a form of unconscious form of Psychological Egoism, which can affect day to day

circumstances. In summary, people make choices that degrade others because of a form of

radicalized egocentrism, or unconscious form of egoism.

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Bibliography:

Henderson, Rob. “Are Most People Selfish, Selfless, or Both?” Psychology Today, 26 Feb. 2020,

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/after-service/202002/are-most-people-selfish-

selfless-or-both.

Batson, C. Dani, and Et Al. “Is Empathic Emotion a Source of Altruistic Motivation?” Journal

of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 40, no. 2, 1981, pp. 290–302.,

doi:10.1037/0022-3514.40.2.290.

Irwin, William. “Psychological Egoism and Self-Interest.” Reason Papers, vol. 39, no. 2, Winter

2017, pp. 69–89. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=hlh&AN=128355493&site=eds-live.

May, Joshua. “Psychological Egoism.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,

www.iep.utm.edu/psychego/.

Pronin, Emily, and Christopher Y. Olivola. “Egocentrism.” Encyclopædia Britannica,

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 20 July 2016, www.britannica.com/science/egocentrism.

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Schwartz, Mel. “Why Is It So Important to Be Right?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 7

Mar. 2011, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/shift-mind/201103/why-is-it-so-important-

be-right.

Shaver, Robert. “Egoism.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 15 Jan.

2019, plato.stanford.edu/entries/egoism/.

Windschitl, Paul D., et al. “Are People Excessive or Judicious in Their Egocentrism? A

Modeling Approach to Understanding Bias and Accuracy in Peoples Optimism.” Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 95, no. 2, 2008, pp. 253–273., doi:10.1037/0022-

3514.95.2.253.