<P> Hindsight bias is not only affected by whether or not the outcome is favorable or unfavorable, but also the severity of the negative outcome . In malpractice suits, the more severe the negative outcome the more dramatic the juror's hindsight bias . In a perfectly objective case, the verdict would be based on the physician's standard of care instead of the outcome of the treatment; however, studies show that cases that end in severe negative outcomes such as death result in higher levels of hindsight bias . In 1996, LaBine proposed a scenario where a psychiatric patient told a therapist that they were contemplating harming another individual who the therapist did not warn of possible danger . Three participants were given three possible outcomes where the threatened individual received no injuries, minor injuries, and serious injuries and then were asked to determine if the doctor would be considered negligent . Participants who received the serious injuries category not only rated the therapist as negligent but also rated the attack as more foreseeable . Participants in the no injuries and minor injury categories were more likely to see the therapist's actions as reasonable . </P> <P> In tests for hindsight bias, a person is asked to remember a specific event from the past or recall some descriptive information that they had been tested on earlier . In between the first test and final test, they are given the correct information about the event or knowledge . At the final test, he or she will report that they knew the answer all along when they truly have changed their answer to fit with the correct information they were given after the initial test . Hindsight bias has been found to take place in both memory for experienced situations (events that the person is familiar with) and hypothetical situations (made up events where the person must imagine being involved). </P> <P> More recently, it has been found that hindsight bias also exists in recall with visual material . When tested on initially blurry images, the subjects learn what the true image was after the fact and they would then remember a clear recognizable picture . There has been very little research on the phenomenon of visual hindsight bias . One experiment performed by Muhm et al. occurred over a six - year period and had over 4,618 participants . Each participant received a chest radiograph every 4 months . Each radiograph was reviewed by two radiologists and a respiratory physician to determine if there were any problems . Over the course of the experiment, 92 chest tumors were found in several of the participants . When physicians reviewed the previous radiographs of the participants who developed tumors, they determined that evidence of the tumor was present even before it had been identified . In other words, after finding the tumor, physicians determined the presence of the tumor was obvious in previous radiographs, even though they had not noticed it before . </P> <P> The role of surprise can help explain the malleability of hindsight bias . Surprise influences how the mind reconstructs pre-outcome predictions in three ways: </P>

Hindsight can at times influence the accuracy of clinical judgments