L7 - Heuristics & Persuasion Flashcards
Why do we use heuristics?
- Efficient decisions in uncertain environment
- Preserving system 1 worldviews
- Can cause incorrect inferences and suboptimal decisions
What are the two types of heuristics?
- Availability: estimating likelihood of events by how easy it is for us to recall things from our past = probability = used for uncertainty
- Representative: interpreting experienced events, judging events as congruent with existing expectation = category judgements in ambiguous situations
Describe the availability heuristic in more depth:
- Network of knowledge and events occurred, want to see how easy to recall from memory, easy = often
What was the risk estimates study?
- Ask people what leads to more deaths per year
- People give figures according to media representation
What is the role of behavioural judgements in the availability heuristic? (Exp)
- Asked subjects for 6 easy or 12 hard examples of assertive or unassertive behaviour
- Ask 'How assertive are you on a scale from 1-9'
- See yourself as most assertive if you have 6 assertive and 12 unassertive
- Playing with ease of recall
What is a study that shows representation heuristic?
- Give 2 groups
- Give probabilities
- e.g what are the chances Jim is an engineer
- Second conditions with more detail, and ask what Jim is and probability increases
- Ignoring base rates because we overestimate predictive value of stereotype
What is the verification bias?
- Hypothesis testing approach = looking at a checklist for both introverts and extraversion (if that’s what you are testing)
- Check for diagnostic attributes that confirm this question (ignore other side)
What are illusory patterns?
- Many phenomena are random
- We see an expected pattern when they is none e.g the bombings of London via Germany
What is foot in the door compliance?
- Comply with initial small request (bolsters system 1) = comply with larger later request (feels hypocritic)
- STUDY: Women asked to put ugly sign in front garden. Some women were asked to sign a petition first before asking to put up the ugly sign
- 17% complied in absence of petition request, 55% complied to request with both.
What is the door in the face compliance?
- Refuse initial request
- Comply with later smaller request
- Students were asked to chaperon a group of delinquents to the zoo (2 hours)
- Some refused to spend 2 hours a week counselling, others had not been asked
- 17% agree in absence of initial request
- 50% agree if they refused the initial request
What is the low-ball technique?
- Agreement with initial set of conditions
- Conditions change for the worse
- Person still complies
- Students asked to go to 7am exp for a fave professor, others were asked to participate, and then told it was at 7
- 25% agreed if told the time of exp, 56% if not told the time
What is the 'That’s-Not-All' technique?
- Persona; considers an offer but does not commit
- Requestor makes offer more attractive by adding elements
- More compliance even though added elements were intended all along.
- Engages in system 1
Study of 'That’s-Not-All' technique:
- Customers presented baked goods for a cupcake & 2 cookies = 75p = 40% showed interest.
- Other condition: cupcake for 75p, but throw in 2 cookies = 73% showed interest because baseline shown
