Naïve Cynicism
The tendency to assume other people are more selfishly motivated than they actually are. We expect bias in others while remaining blind to our own.
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Origin
The term was coined in 1999 by psychologist Justin Kruger and social psychologist Thomas Gilovich at Cornell University, in a paper published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Their experiments showed that people routinely attribute more cynical motives to others than actually exist — even when explicitly informed that observers tend toward this bias. The name distinguishes it from rational, evidence-based cynicism.
Updated February 22, 2026