“I’m confused” is much better than “I may be wrong” and (especially) “I may be biased”. It’s just as modest, but more informative.
And—importantly—it links the modesty to your epistemic state, not your seniority level. To the extent that “I may be wrong” is, as you say, a truism, it doesn’t communicate any information about your knowledge and is just verbal filler whose actual meaning is unconnected to its semantic content .
On the other hand, examples like “I may be biased, but my relative Person X is the greatest person in the world” are clearly instances of undermining one’s own credibility. As such, I find them grating.
“I’m confused” is much better than “I may be wrong” and (especially) “I may be biased”. It’s just as modest, but more informative.
And—importantly—it links the modesty to your epistemic state, not your seniority level. To the extent that “I may be wrong” is, as you say, a truism, it doesn’t communicate any information about your knowledge and is just verbal filler whose actual meaning is unconnected to its semantic content .
On the other hand, examples like “I may be biased, but my relative Person X is the greatest person in the world” are clearly instances of undermining one’s own credibility. As such, I find them grating.