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Is there a word for a person (or an attribute to describe a person) who habitually interprets facts and words in such a way that their interpretation proves their argument is correct while others wrong. In other words, a term for a person (or an attribute for a person) who always makes the most self-serving interpretation of the facts to benefit themselves the most.

Example of such person:

  • Politicians who always interpret facts to prove they are correct and to prove that the opposition are not.
  • In quarrels (say between two partners, not just legal quarrels, but say between husband and wife), one may keep saying that opposition's interpretations of facts are wrong and provide his / her version of interpretations (interpretations which will comforts him / proves opposition wrong and him / her correct).
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    Please provide some examples.
    – Lawrence
    Commented May 31, 2021 at 16:02
  • @Lawrence for example politicians always interpret their criticism as incorrect ... but this could be any normal person who has habbit to interpret things such that he / she can prove her deeds were only correct and he / she had done no mistakes ...
    – Rnj
    Commented May 31, 2021 at 18:10
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    @Rnj Thank you for your reply. Can you supply some example sentences and have 2 descriptions of each sentence? The first description would be the intended meaning of the sentence, and the second sentence would be the meaning of the sentence according to what you call “comfort”. Please do this by editing the question so that the details survive even if comments get deleted.
    – Lawrence
    Commented Jun 1, 2021 at 5:00
  • Is this helpful? english.stackexchange.com/questions/424011/…
    – ghurley
    Commented Jun 2, 2021 at 0:22
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    At first glance, not unless something as simple as "self serving" would fit the bill… and that would be a peripheral fit, at best. Why would you want such a phrase and then, why would it have to be a word, and not a phrase?
    – Robbie Goodwin
    Commented Nov 12, 2021 at 22:19

2 Answers 2

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Not sure if this will help, but maybe Confirmation bias can shed some light on your quest for this term. Britannica defines it as

the tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with one’s existing beliefs.

Whereas Oxford languages says it is

the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories.

This article The Confirmation Bias: Why People See What They Want to See does nevertheless look similar to what you are speaking about. It is not from a commonly reliable source, but you may find it of interest.

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A person who interprets everything to their advantage is typically called a "spin doctor." They are often seen as dishonest or untrustworthy because they are not always truthful about the information they are relaying.

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