Naive Realism

Definition

Naive realism describes people's tendency to believe that they perceive the social world “as it is”—as objective reality—rather than as a subjective construction and interpretation of reality. This belief that one's perceptions are realistic, unbiased interpretations of the social world has two important implications. First, that other, rational people will have similar perceptions as oneself. Second, that other people who have different perceptions from oneself must be uninformed (i.e., not privy to the same information as oneself), irrational, or biased.

Context and Importance

One of psychology's fundamental lessons is that perception is a subjective construction of the world rather than a direct representation of objective reality. That is, people's beliefs and perceptions are a function of both the objective properties of the world and the psychological processes ...

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