PSY 101 Lecture 1: Part 2: 01.08
Document Summary
Hindsight bias -the tendency for people to exaggerate how much they could have predicted an outcome after knowing that it occurred. Another way of saying it -commonsense describes what has happened after the fact more easily than it predicts what will happen before the fact. Common sense can be contradictory there is a "commonsensical" explanation for nearly any conclusion and for its opposite. We may differ in what seems commonsensical to us; no way to resolve differences between individuals. Class example of social psychology and common sense. Common sense is often based on private, careless observation, or upon wholly non-empirical bases (e. g. , folklore, parental teaching, stereotypes, etc. ) Some students of psychology only credit unexpected findings as scientific ; seeing the rest as just common sense . However, our common sense can be and is often valid. Just because science tells us something "everybody knows", doesn"t diminish the validity or possible utility of that knowledge.
