Projection bias in particular was unrelated to cognitive ability. This bias was assessed as the correlation between the rater's own responses and that rater's consensus estimates while actual consensus values were statistically controlled. Stanovich suggests that this lack of a correlation between projection bias and cognitive ability supports the view that projection is a rational strategy for inductive reasoning. I hesitate to draw this conclusion because I think it would require a strong positive correlation. That is, one might expect that smart people are especially good at inductive reasoning.
Most people project from themselves to others, and some do so more than others.
Its end result, consensus estimates that are fairly accurate, seems to suggest that people reason inductively. This interpretation is challenged, however, by the finding that people tend to ignore the behaviors of other individual when they make predictions about the group. They are egocentric in the sense that they rely selectively on information that is tied to the self. Ignoring information tied to others violates inductive reasoning. Incidentally, this example illustrates a rare case in which a null hypothesis represents irrationality.