| Representative
heuristic |
Judgments are biased by our assessment of the
degree to which the salient (a feature that
stands out) features of specific instances resemble
general categories.
The representative
heuristic may explain why
only certain
operant-reinforced
associations are easily
learned.
|
| Example
of the Representative
heuristics… |
What is the most
likely sequence for the
next 6 babies born in the
U.S. (b=boy, g=girl)
|
1) BBBBBB
|
3)GBBGGB |
2) BBBGGG
|
|
|
Correct mathematical
probability theory says #1 because there are
slightly more boys than girls born in the US.
However, 1 2 and 3 are about equal in probability.
The reason why people would lean towards #3
is because it looks like it
is random distribution. Most people know that
the gender of a child is random.
|
|
A professor likes to
write poetry is rather
shy, and is small in
stature. Which of the
following is his field?
|
1) Chinese studies
|
|
2) Psychology
|
|
|
Correct answer would be Psychologists, based
on the fact that the total number of psychologist
is greater than the total number of people in
the field of Chinese studies. Therefore,
one could expect many psychologists to express
these characteristics, even though these characteristics
don't typify that of psychologists in general.
We often ignore the total number of occurrences
(base rate) in a population when making these
kinds of decisions.
|
|
| Availability
Heuristic
- |
Judgment are biased by how easily
specific examples are recalled.
Easier = more frequent or
more causally related
What is in our short term
memories affects our
decisions
|
| Example
of the Representative
heuristics: |
Which of
the following do more
people die of:
Motor Vehicle
Accidents
or
Stroke
|
| Correct
answer: Stroke.
Although motor vehicle accidents are more
widely publicized and we encounter them more in
every day life (for example on the side of the road
on our way to work or school), these accident's
are rarely fatal. Strokes are less publicized (found
in the obituary section) and account for more deaths
in the US. |
Which
of the following do more
people die of:
Homicide
or
Diabetes
|
| Correct
answer: Diabetes. For the same reasons
as the previous example: people are more drawn to
choosing homicide. Homicide is more frequently
portrayed in TV dramas. |
Are
there more words that begin
with the letter
"r"
or
that have "r"
as the third
letter?
|
| Correct
answer is R as the third letter. Because it is easier
for us to list off words which start with "R"
than have "R" as the third letter, we
are more susceptible to choose what is readily available
to us. |
|
|
This chart shows how being a member of a specific
group could predispose you to believe that more
people of the general population will also be part
of your group. When asked how many people
are vegetarians, the vegetarians estimated a greater
number than non vegetarians. This effect can
be explained through the availability heuristic.
Vegetarians think that there are more vegetarians
because more of the people that they know are vegetarian. |
|
By altering
actors and observers
perspectives through
videotape replays,
mirrors, or other
methods, one can
correspondingly alter
actors’ and
observer’s causal
assessments."
Human inference
Nisbett & Ross 1980
By changing the
perspective, we also can
change the availability
of information that
jurors use to reach a
verdict. In the
Rodney King trial, for
example, all the officers
who beat Rodney King were
acquitted. The
lawyers defending the
police, replayed the
videotape of the beating,
stopping it frequently to
make information
available to the
jurors. This
information consisted of
what the police were
thinking as well as
Rodney King's supposed
intentions. Using
this technique of
manipulating
availability, they were
able to convince the jury
that Rodney King was the
cause of his own beating.
|
