The tendency to believe we could have predicted an outcome is known as?

The concept being described is known as hindsight bias, which refers to the inclination people have to see events as having been predictable after they have already occurred. This cognitive phenomenon occurs when individuals believe that they "knew it all along" once they learn the outcome of an event. It can lead to an overestimation of one's ability to foresee events, thereby affecting how individuals evaluate past decisions and judgments.

Hindsight bias is particularly relevant in various contexts, including social psychology, where it can influence personal reflection and evaluation of past choices or societal events. People often become more confident in their ability to predict future outcomes based on their retrospective judgments, which can skew their perceptions and interpretations of similar events in the future.

Understanding hindsight bias is crucial as it highlights the limitations of human cognition and the ways in which our memories and evaluations of past events can be influenced by subsequent information or outcomes.