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

In an analysis of this character the personal equation must have a secondary place.

From Final Proof or the Value of Evidence by Ottolengui, R.

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 Geyer, Delton Loring

It must be the physician's business to find out in each individual case, according to his own personal equation, just how he may be able to use at least some of it.

From Psychotherapy by Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)