Social Cognition – Errors, Biases, and Heuristics

Question 1

Errors and Biases

Answer 1

Errors and biases in decision-making resulting from automatic cognitive processing, including confirmation bias, illusory correlation, base rate fallacy, false consensus effect, gambler’s fallacy, counterfactual thinking, and illusory control.

Question 2

Confirmation Bias

Answer 2

Tendency to seek information that confirms existing beliefs and ignore contradictory information.

Question 3

Illusory Correlation

Answer 3

Overestimation of the relationship between two variables that are not related or only slightly related.

Question 4

False Consensus Effect

Answer 4

Tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our opinions, values, and beliefs.

Question 4

Base Rate Fallacy

Answer 4

Tendency to ignore base rate information and be influenced by the distinctive features of individual cases.

Question 5

Gambler’s Fallacy

Answer 5

Belief that chance events are affected by previous events and will “even out” in the short run.

Question 6

Counterfactual Thinking

Answer 6

Tendency to imagine alternative outcomes to past events, leading to feelings of regret or relief.

Question 7

Illusory Control

Answer 7

Belief that one can influence events that are actually outside of their control.

Question 8

Heuristics

Answer 8

Mental shortcuts used for quick judgments, including representativeness, availability, anchoring and adjustment, and simulation heuristics.

Question 9

Representativeness Heuristic

Answer 9

Judging the likelihood of an event based on how closely it resembles a prototype, often ignoring base rates.

Question 10

Availability Heuristic

Answer 10

Judging the likelihood of an event based on how easily relevant examples come to mind, leading to overestimation of uncommon events.

Question 11

Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic

Answer 11

Estimating the likelihood of an event by starting with an initial value and adjusting from there.

Question 12

Simulation Heuristic

Answer 12

Judging the likelihood of an event based on how easily it can be imagined happening, often influenced by counterfactual thinking. The simulation heuristic differs from other heuristics because, in addition to affecting our judgment about the probability that an event will occur, it affects how we feel or think others feel about the event.