personal equation

American  

noun

1. the tendency to personal bias that accounts for variation in interpretation or approach and for which allowance must be made.

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personal equation British  

noun

1. the variation or error in observation or judgment caused by individual characteristics

2. the allowance made for such variation

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Etymology

Origin of personal equation

First recorded in 1835–45

Example Sentences

Relations between the U.S. and Europe are complicated by the personal equation.

From Time Magazine Archive

There are experimentalists, like Picasso, and those who, like Braque, discover their personal equation and go on repeating it.

From Time Magazine Archive

Every investigator necessarily has his personal equation or point of view.

From Following the Color Line an account of Negro citizenship in the American democracy by Grayson, David

"You under-estimate the personal equation," returned the other.

From A Hero of Li?ge by Strang, Herbert

Just as in scientific observation there is a personal equation, so in the conduct of life there is a personal limitation.

From The Eulogy of Richard Jefferies by Besant, Walter, Sir