cognitive biases Flashcards
what are heuristics?
mental shortcuts
what is one example of a cognitive bias?
the anchoring bias
what is the anchoring bias?
the tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (the “anchor”) when making decisions.
what are two strengths of cognitive biases?
high heuristic value
reliable evidence that we use heuristics
what is a limitation of cognitive biases?
often university student sample- lacks ecological validity, cross cultural support
what is an anchor?
the first piece of information offered that people tend to rely on to make decisions
what are two studies demonstrating the anchor bias?
Englich and Mussweiler (2001)
Tversky and Kahneman (1974)
what was the aim of Tversky and Kahneman?
investigate the effect of the anchoring bias in the estimation of a mathematical problem
what were the two conditions in Tversky and Kahneman?
the ascending condition
the descending condition
what was the median of the two condotions in Tversky and Kahneman?
the ascending group estimated 512
the descending group estimated 2250
the actual answer is 40320
what are some strengths of Tversky and Kahneman?
easily replicated-establishes reliability
highly controlled
high internal validity
median was used to report the data-eliminates outliers
what are two limitations of Tversky and Kahneman?
low ecological validity- artificial task
independent samples design-participant variability
what was the aim of Englich and Mussweiler?
determining the effect of a prosecutors suggestion for sentencing on the decision making of the judge
what was the pilot study for Englich and Mussweiler?
a group of 24 senior law students were asked to recommend a suggested prison term for the case
it was 17 months
how many months were given as a suggestion in the low anchor and high anchor conditions in Englich and Mussweiler?
the low ancor condition was told 2 months
the high anchor condition was told 34 months
