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.

---

personal equation British  

noun

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

2. the allowance made for such variation

---

Etymology

Origin of personal equation

First recorded in 1835–45

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

personal equation

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

This is clearly brought out in contrast to non-scientific investigation, where personal equation counts for a great deal more.

From The pragmatic theory of truth as developed by Peirce, James, and Dewey by Delton Loring Geyer

Only through the lapse of time is the personal equation eliminated from the estimate of an author's relative proportion to the aggregate of his country's genius.

From Allan Ramsay Famous Scots Series by William Henry Oliphant Smeaton

But I fear me greatly that this is idle; it is but the setting up of one personal equation over against another.

From Americanisms and Briticisms with other essays on other isms by Brander Matthews