What Is Hindsight Bias?
Hindsight Bias is the “tendency to construct one’s memory after the fact (or interpret the meaning of something said in the past) according to currently known facts and one’s current beliefs. In this way, one appears to make the past consistent with the present and more predictive or predictable than it actually was.” 1
Hindsight Bias is also known as the knew-it-all-along phenomenon.2
An example from yourdictionary.com, “An individual notices that outside, it’s beginning to look a little bit gray. He says to himself, I bet that it’s going to rain this afternoon. When it actually does rain, the individual tells himself that he was certain that it would when he saw the clouds rolling in earlier.”3
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Jeff Johnson is an early learning trainer, podcaster, and author who founded Explorations Early Learning, Playvolution HQ, and Play Haven.
Notes
- http://skepdic.com/hindsightbias.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindsight_bias
- http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-hindsight-bias.html
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