While an event&rsquo;s outcome may seem inevitable, its prediction may not be as obvious as someone thinks.

For example, a student gleefully leaves the lecture hall with his latest exam score&mdash;and loudly proclaims that he knew he would ace the difficult test all along!

This phenomenon is an example of the hindsight bias&mdash;the tendency to believe that a particular outcome could have been predicted&mdash;only after the result was already determined, not in foresight.

In this case, through selective memory recall, the individual extracted certain details&mdash;and left out many others&mdash;to craft into a narrative that made sense, given his final grade. Because this process appeared relatively easy, he interpreted that his good marks were indeed foreseeable.

Ultimately, overconfident approaches could restrict learning and growth in future occasions if people don&rsquo;t fully dissect their experiences.

Next time, maybe the well-intentioned student will not feel obliged to be right. Instead, he&rsquo;ll think of alternative endings and why something really happened!

hindsight biases

Hindsight bias&nbsp;leads you to believe that the event you just experienced was predictable, even though it really wasn&rsquo;t. In other words, you knew all along that things would turn out the way they did. Can you&nbsp;relate this to the phrase &quot;Hindsight is 20/20&quot; now?&nbsp;

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This text is adapted from <a href="https://cnx.org/contents/Sr8Ev5Og@10.24:Lk3YnvuC@12/7-3-Problem-Solving" target="_blank">OpenStax, Psychology. OpenStax CNX.</a>

Learn by watching this video about Hindsight Biases: Definition and Examples at JoVE.com

Hindsight Biases: Definition and Examples

Hindsight Biases

Hindsight bias&nbsp;leads you to believe that the event you just experienced was predictable, even though it really wasn&rsquo;t. In other words, you knew ...