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True belief and the ramifications of introspection in scientific discovery

Nature Human Behaviour volume 5, page 1594 (2021)Cite this article

Subjective experience of the topic of study can bring passion and creativity to cognitive research. Micah Allen describes this as a double-edged sword, as he recalls witnessing how subjective feeling overrode hard data. But there are ways in which researchers can benefit from subjectively informed research, while guarding against its pitfalls.

Historically, introspection has endured a chequered scientific past — and for good reason. Decades of research demonstrate that introspection, the contemplation of our own thoughts and subjective experiences, is riddled with cognitive biases. Chief among these blind spots are misattribution and egoistic errors, highlighting how the view from within can easily be distorted by our goals and motivations. And yet there is little doubt that excellent scientists rely constantly on their own subjective experience, whether in designing a new experiment or constructing a new model of the mind.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark

    Micah Allen

  2. Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Micah Allen

  3. Cambridge Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Micah Allen

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  1. Micah Allen
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Correspondence to Micah Allen.

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Allen, M. True belief and the ramifications of introspection in scientific discovery. Nat Hum Behav 5, 1594 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01234-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01234-1

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