Meta-cognitive myopia

Meta-cognitive myopia refers to individuals’ tendency to readily utilize a great deal of stimulus information available in their environment, while disregarding the history, qualities, and validity of the stimulus data (Fiedler, 2012; Fiedler et al., 2023). The term has been proposed as an umbrella term to describe rather disparate phenomena and findings in the field of psychology, and more specifically in research areas on judgement and decision-making like base-rate neglect, fundamental attribution error, or belief perseverance (Fiedler et al., 2023). While the term is originally attributed to Robyn Dawes (Fiedler, 2012; Fiedler et al., 2023) it has been made popular by the theoretical and empirical work of Klaus Fiedler and his colleagues. This entry defines meta-cognitive myopia and describes how it can explain otherwise disparate phenomena and findings within the fields of psychology and communication, with a specific focus on explaining contemporary socio-political problems like polarization and extremism.