When misfortunes befall a person, others sometimes think the victim of circumstances deserved what happened. One reason put forth to explain why someone would think like that has been called the mere exposure effect. deindividuation. the just-world hypothesis. the hindsight bias.

As you drive in to school, you hear a random radio-show caller arguing that sun exposure really has not been shown to cause skin cancer and that some research suggests that skin cancer is completely genetic and not related to sun exposure at all. at the time, you think that this is a silly argument and that the caller does not know what she is talking about. however, two months later, you are outside without wearing sunscreen, and you find yourself remembering that you had read something about how the sun actually does not cause skin cancer. this process is evidence that has influenced your attitude