Hindsight Bias Definition | Causes & Examples
Hindsight Bias Definition
Hindsight bias refers to a cognitive bias or tendency of people to believe that after an event, they knew or could have predicted its outcome. It is a phenomenon where people believe that they knew what would happen when in actuality they did not.
Examples of Hindsight Bias
There are many instances where hindsight bias can be observed. Some examples include:
- After a sporting event, fans believing that they knew their team would win all along, even though they were not confident leading up to the event
- After a stock market crash, investors believing that they saw the signs of the crash coming, even though they did not act on it before it happened
- After a natural disaster or terrorist attack, people believing that they had a gut feeling that something bad was going to happen, despite having no actual evidence of it beforehand
These examples illustrate how hindsight bias can affect people and how they perceive their ability to predict outcomes.
