Frequentistic adverbs as measures of egocentric biases

Research by Messick et al . (1985) concerning the egocentric fairness bias was replicated using linguistic choices rather than rating scales. Subjects were asked to choose from among six frequency quantifiers to describe the estimated frequency of moral and immoral behaviours as performed by ‘I’ or ‘Other people’. Results replicate the dual slope phenomenon found by previous researchers. Subjects chose quantifiers referring to higher frequencies when estimating frequencies for ‘I’–moral behaviour than for ‘Other people’—moral behaviour, and quantifiers referring to lower frequencies when estimating frequencies for ‘I’—immoral behaviour than for ‘Other people’—immoral behaviour. This ‘I’–‘Other’ differentiation was greater for the immoral behaviours than the moral behaviours.