What is cognitive accountability?

Cognitive accountability is a concept in personal epistemology: With the authority to direct your own thinking comes the responsibility for the quality and consequences of that thinking.

Example: You leave a meeting convinced the strategy is wrong but say nothing because 'it's not my call.' Six months later, the strategy fails exactly the way you predicted. You feel vindicated — but you shouldn't. You had authority over your own thinking and chose not to exercise it. The strategy's failure is partly the team's. Your silence is entirely yours. You owned the insight and refused the responsibility that came with it.

This concept is part of Phase 31 (Self-Authority) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for self-authority.