Which scenario demonstrates people leaning on the representativeness heuristic when arriving at decisions or judgments?
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Answer: C. People are more likely to attribute a case of heartbum to spicy food than bland food
Explanation
The representativeness heuristic involves judging the likelihood of events based on how well they match mental prototypes. People link heartburn to spicy food because spicy meals represent a prototypical cause matching stereotypical expectations. This cognitive shortcut leads individuals to estimate probabilities by assessing perceived similarities rather than statistical facts. Heuristics are mental shortcuts that allow people to solve problems and make judgments quickly with minimal effort. Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman pioneered research on cognitive heuristics and human decision making biases. The representativeness heuristic often causes individuals to ignore base rate frequencies in favor of stereotypical matches.
Reporting over fifty percent of domestic work reflects the availability heuristic or ego centric memory retrieval bias. Overestimating car accidents stems from the availability heuristic due to dramatic media coverage of vehicle crashes. Underestimating death from diabetes represents a failure of probability estimation unrelated to representativeness prototypes.
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- Psychology
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- Psychology
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