Kahneman and Tversky Cognitive Bias

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

Investigate Availability Heuristic

Question 2

Methods

Answer 2

Participants were randomly split into 2 groups
- Recorded lists of names
Public Figures, Entertainers, Famous women,men,vice versa
-non famous made up the majority of the lists
-Lists=Presented to participants
-After listening, recall as many names (condition 1)
-Condition 2=judge if lists contained more men or women

Question 3

Results Recall

Answer 3

Participants recalled more famous than less famous names

• Mean of 12.3 of 19 famous names
• Mean 8.4 of 20 less famous

Question 4

Result Frequency

Answer 4

-Participants identified the frequency of more female names than male

Question 5

Conclusion

Answer 5

Support of availability Heuristic
-People judge the frequency of something by the availability
(frequency of gender by famous names heard)

Question 6

Strength

Answer 6

• Controlled experiment (random allocation)

- Solidified the cognitive bias influence of availability

Question 7

Limitation

Answer 7

• generisability is limited by lack of information

- women can recall more names of women than men