Heuristics

Question 1

Naive scientist

Answer 1

• Heider (1958)

- We weigh up the available information in a rational way and make a logical judgement

Question 2

Cognitive Misers

Answer 2

• Fiske & Taylor (1991)

- We take shortcuts, saving time and effort using heuristics

Question 3

What are heuristics?

Answer 3

• Time-saving mental shortcuts that reduce complex judgements to simple rules of thumb

Question 4

Main types of heuristics - Tversky & Kahnerman (1974)

Answer 4

• The representativeness heuristic
• The availability heuristic
• The anchoring heuristic

Question 5

Representativeness heuristic

Answer 5

• Tendency to judge the category membership of people based on how closely they match the prototypical member of that category
• Kahneman & Tversky (1973)

Question 6

Base rate fallacy

Answer 6

Tendency to ignore statistical information in favour of representativeness information

Question 7

Problems with representativeness heuristics

Answer 7

Can lead to stereotyping and discrimination

Question 8

Availability heuristic

Answer 8

• Tendency to judge the frequency or probability of an event in terms of how easy it is to think of examples of that event
• Kahneman & Tversky (1973)

Question 9

Schwarz & Colleagues (1991)

Answer 9

• Participants asked to recall 12 or 6 examples of their own assertive or unassertive behaviour
• Asked to rate own assertiveness
• Ppts who recalled 6 rated themselves as more assertive than those who recalled 12

Question 10

False consensus effect

Answer 10

• Gross & Miller (1997)

- Tendency to exaggerate how common one’s own opinions are in the general population

Question 11

Ross, Green & House (1977)

Answer 11

• Asked if they would walk around campus for 30 mins wearing a large sandwich board for a company
• Estimate the number of students who would make the same choice
• Whichever choice they made, they said the majority of other people would make the same choice

Question 12

Explanation for the false consensus effect

Answer 12

• Rather than seek out information about what others actually do, we seem to assume that others would do the same as us
• We tend to overestimate the level of consensus of our own beliefs and actions
• Our own self beliefs are easily recalled from memory making them most accessible when we judge whether others agree with us

Question 13

The anchoring heuristic

Answer 13

• Wyer (1976)

- Anchoring is the tendency to be biased towards the starting value or anchor in making quantitative judgements

Question 14

Plous (1989)

Answer 14

• Survey during the cold war
• Asked same question in different ways
• Is there a greater than 1% chance of a nuclear war occurring soon? (10% chance)
• Is there less than a 90% chance of a nuclear war occurring soon? (25% chance)

Question 15

Greenburg, Pyszczynski & Solomon (1986)

Answer 15

In a mock jury, participants asked first to consider a harsh verdict were subsequently harsher in their final decision

Question 16

Kruglanski (1996)

Answer 16

Research has suggested that we are flexible social thinkers who choose between multiple cognitive strategies based on their current goals, motives, and needs

Question 17

Conditions promoting heuristic use - Macrae, Hewstone & Griffiths (1993)

Answer 17

• Time constraints
• Cognitive overload
• Low importance
• Little information regarding issue

Question 18

What is social cognition?

Answer 18

A broad term that describes the way people encode, process, remember and use information in social contexts in order to make sense of others’ behaviour

Question 19

Heuristic limitation Ajzen (1996)

Answer 19

They are quick and easy, but can result in biased information processing

Question 20

Stereotype threat

Answer 20

Difficult for men to progress in stereotypical female jobs and vice versa