The evidence is real and the argument about it is still running: how strong it is, how far it travels, or whether it repeats. Trust the direction, and hold the numbers loosely.
Researchers gave people a difficult personal dilemma to reason through, something like a conflict in a close relationship. But they varied one thing: some were asked to think about it as their own problem, and others as a friend's problem facing the identical situation. Then they scored the quality of the reasoning, how well people recognised the limits of their own knowledge, considered other viewpoints, and searched for compromise. The result was consistent. People reasoned more wisely about a friend's version of a problem than their own, even though the problems were the same. They named it after the biblical King Solomon, remembered for the wisdom he brought to other people's disputes, and for a personal life that went considerably less well. Distance from a problem, it turns out, improves judgment.
You think more clearly about other people's problems than your own, because distance strips away the fear and the ego that cloud a decision when it is yours. This is why your advice to a friend is often braver and wiser than what you do in the same spot. The practical trick is almost embarrassing in its simplicity: when you are stuck on your own decision, ask what you would tell a friend who brought you this exact situation, and then take your own advice. The effect is real, though its size is moderate, so treat it as a useful tool, not a magic wand.
Solomon's paradox says you reason better about a friend's problem than your own, because distance strips away the fear and ego that cloud your own decisions. The fundamental attribution error says you explain a stranger's stumble by their character and your own by your circumstances. Same distance, opposite effect. Distance improves your thinking when you are solving and degrades it when you are judging. So the advice you give a friend is wiser than what you do yourself, and the verdict you pass on a candidate's worst hour is harsher than the one you pass on your own. The useful move runs in both directions: borrow the distance when it is your decision, and lend the context when it is someone else's.
Source: Grossmann and Kross, 2014, Psychological Science. Supportive replications, moderate effect sizes.
Ethan Kross, 2021
From the lab behind the Solomon's paradox research: how to get distance from your own head on demand.
Draw your own card. It does not take long, and it rewards taking your time.