Abstract <p>Spontaneous symmetry breaking in glass dielectric microspheres with Kerr nonlinearity was studied experimentally and theoretically, taking into account the linear Rayleigh scattering between counterpropagating waves under bidirectional symmetric optical pumping. It was shown that the higher the Rayleigh scattering coefficient, the higher the threshold power required to observe the effect. An increase in the Rayleigh coupling coefficient between counterpropagating waves leads to a narrowing of the pump frequency detuning region from the exact resonance frequency required for spontaneous symmetry breaking, and a decrease in the asymmetry of the light states</p>