Hindsight Bias and the Simpson Trial: Use in Introductory Psychology

Abstract

The Simpson criminal trial provided an excellent opportunity to illustrate the hindsight bias, the tendency to exaggerate one's ability to have foreseen the outcome of an event after learning the outcome. As hypothesized, introductory psychology students who estimated their prediction of the outcome of the trial post verdict were more accurate than students who predicted the outcome pre verdict. In this article, I illustrate how the hindsight bias can be demonstrated in the classroom and how it can highlight the need for the scientific method in psychology.