Social Psychology and Personality Hindsight bias and the Simpson trial: Use in introductory psychology. George J.Demakis

In introductory psychology, providing a rationale for psychology as the scientific study of behavior is critical. Many students enter their first psychology course with “folk” theories of behavior, and they see psychology as simply intuitive and commonsensical. To help students appreciate the need for the scientific method in the study of behavior, teachers can discuss cognitive biases, such as the overconfidence phenomenon, the confirmation bias, and the hindsight bias (Myers, 1995; Wood, 1984). The focus of this article is how to demonstrate the hindsight bias in the classroom and how it illustrates critical points about psychological science.