I-Knew-It-All-Along Phenomenon

The I-Knew-It-All-Along Phenomenon refers to the tendency of individuals to perceive past events as being more predictable than they actually were at the time. It is a cognitive bias that leads people to believe that they had predicted or expected an outcome or event all along, even when they had no pre-existing knowledge or evidence to support such a prediction.

Hindsight Bias

Hindsight Bias, also known as the “creeping determinism” or “knew-it-all-along effect,” is a psychological phenomenon in which individuals have an inclination to believe that they could have predicted the outcome of an event after it has occurred, despite the lack of prior knowledge or evidence. With hindsight bias, people often reconstruct their memory of the past to align with the actual outcome, making it seem more predictable and certain than it truly was at the time.

This bias can have various implications, such as distorting our understanding of historical events or influencing our decision-making processes. The hindsight bias can lead to overconfidence in our ability to predict outcomes, and it may hinder our capacity to learn from past experiences or accurately assess our own decision-making abilities. Recognizing and understanding this bias is important in order to make more informed judgments and avoid falling into the trap of believing we knew something was going to happen all along.