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

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

From Time Magazine Archive

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

From Time Magazine Archive

In the latter the personal equation, the skill and the loving, workmanlike fidelity of the individual toiler to his task impart a quality which dead mechanism can neither create nor supersede.

From Lace, Its Origin and History by Goldenberg, Samuel L.

The relation between teachers and scholars is personal rather than official; and on both sides the personal equation often complicates the problem.

From Organizing and Building Up the Sunday School Modern Sunday School Manuals by Hurlbut, Jesse Lyman

The librarian's personal equation is not to be the standard, but the foundation principles of morality, truth, and sound sense must guide him.

From The Library and Society Reprints of Papers and Addresses by Bostwick, Arthur Elmore