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Psychologist's Fallacy

An observer assumes the objectivity of their own perspective when analyzing a behavioral event.

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Origin

William James named the fallacy in his 1890 work The Principles of Psychology, published while he held a professorship at Harvard University. In Chapter 7, he called it "the great snare of the psychologist" — framing it as one of three core obstacles to psychology becoming a rigorous science, warning that researchers who projected their own categories onto subjects would systematically misread inner experience.

Updated February 22, 2026