Question

What is the hindsight bias in Genie’s case and how the researchers/foster parents treated her?

Answer 1

Genie's parents received a medical diagnosis that said she probably had a mental disability, so they deprived her of any contact with anything. Genie spent her days tied to a chair and during the night she was trapped in a crib with bars or left in the chair. Genie's api did not allow anyone to speak to her, which meant that she was deprived of any kind of communication. When Genie was discovered, at the age of 11, she did not know how to speak, weighed 26 kilos and had cognitive development similar to that of a child under one year old. Her parents justified her condition as "since the diagnosis, we knew she would look like this", which is a strong example of hindsight bias. This type of bias occurs when a person claims that he or she already knew the events of a given situation, after that situation happens.

The researchers addressed Genie's problems, especially those related to communication, exposing her to communicative situations, showing her how to go to the bathroom alone, how to dress, how to eat, among other situations, as they are done with babies.

However, she was subjected to several "adoptive fathers" who subjected her to more treatment and abuse, backtracking the entire process achieved by the researchers.