USF St. Petersburg campus Master's Theses (Graduate)

First Advisor

Mark Pezzo, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Tiffany Chenneville, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Christina Salnaitis, Ph.D.

Publisher

University of South Florida St. Petersburg

Document Type

Thesis

Date Available

2016-05-23

Publication Date

2015

Date Issued

2015-03-27 00:00

Abstract

Decades of hindsight bias has shown it to be a robust phenomenon exhibited in many different hypothetical and real-world situations. Two competing models of hindsight bias, the cognitive sense-making model and the motivational model, were used to predict hindsight bias effects for a situation dealing with strongly polarized opinions. Participants read about a physician who prescribed medical marijuana to a child with self-injurious behaviors and then received a positive outcome, negative outcome, or no outcome at all (control group). Those holding a negative view of illegal drugs exhibited hindsight bias following both positive (d = 1.13) and negative outcomes (d = .36). Those with a positive view of illegal drugs showed no hindsight effect for either positive (d = .19) or negative outcomes (d =.09). Participants exhibiting the bias appear to have had less extreme views than those who showed no hindsight bias. Results are partially consistent with previous research that examined motivational and sense-making components of hindsight bias. Future research should focus on examining different strongly held beliefs (e.g., attitudes towards the death penalty or gun control laws) to further understand the mechanisms associated with hindsight bias judgments.

Comments

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, University of South Florida St. Petersburg, March 27, 2015.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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