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

The personal equation in that look silenced and startled Mrs. Crump.

From The Mesa Trail by Bedford-Jones, H.

So absorbed was he, indeed, in his ideals and enthusiasms, that the "personal equation" had become very insignificant.

From Roland Graeme: Knight A Novel of Our Time by Machar, Agnes Maule

Indeed, it is evident that the personal equation must largely determine what any writer's conception of the Middle Ages is.

From Aucassin & Nicolette And Other Mediaeval Romances and Legends by Mason, Eugene