Deck 3: Social Cognition

Question 1

Assuming that someone wearing a white coat and stethoscope is a doctor is an example of which heuristic?

A) the availability heuristic
B) the false-consensus effect
C) representativeness heuristic
D) the anchoring heuristic

Answer 1

C

Question 2

The base rate fallacy is an error resulting from the use of which heuristic?

A) the availability heuristic
B) the representativeness heuristic
C) the anchoring heuristic
D) the false-consensus effect

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Schwarz and colleagues (1991) asked participants to recall 12 or 6 examples of when they had been either assertive or unassertive. It was found that participants who recalled 6 examples of their own assertive behaviour subsequently rated themselves as more assertive than people who had recalled 12 examples of their own assertive behaviour. Such results demonstrate the use of which heuristic?

A) the availability heuristic
B) the false-consensus effect
C) the representativeness heuristic
D) the anchoring heuristic

Answer 3

A

Question 4

The tendency to exaggerate how common one's own opinions are in the general population is known as the ______.

A) actor-observer bias
B) base rate fallacy
C) the anchoring heuristic
D) the false-consensus effect

Question 5

The tendency to be biased towards the starting value in making quantitative judgments is known as ______.

A) the availability heuristic
B) the representativeness heuristic
C) the anchoring heuristic
D) the false-consensus effect

Question 6

When cognitively overloaded, individuals are more likely to ______.

A) behave like naïve scientists
B) use systematic strategies of social inference
C) use heuristics
D) make external attributions

Question 7

Social category boundaries are best described as ______.

A) rigid
B) fuzzy
C) homogenous
D) heterogeneous

Question 8

A prototype refers to the ______ of a category.

A) leader
B) oldest member
C) most representative member
D) all of these

Question 9

The tendency to be biased towards the starting value in making quantitative judgments is known as ______.

A) the anchoring heuristic
B) the availability heuristic
C) the representativeness heuristic
D) the actor-observer bias

Question 10

Kruglanksi (1996) suggested that people are motivated tacticians and are strategic in their allocation of cognitive resources. As such, they can decide to be a cognitive miser or a naïve scientist depending on a number of factors. Which of the following is NOT one of these factors?

A) time
B) cognitive load
C) importance
D) social desirability

Question 11

In general, categories are best described as having ______.

A) clear boundaries
B) fuzzy boundaries
C) impermeable boundaries
D) no boundaries

Question 12

The most representative member of a group or a category is known as a ______.

A) typical member
B) leader
C) prototype
D) deviant

Question 13

The general tendency that people have to perceive members of a group to which they don't belong as more similar to each other than members of a group to which they do belong, is most commonly known as an ______.

A) ingroup homogeneity effect
B) outgroup homogeneity effect
C) ingroup heterogeneity effect
D) outgroup heterogeneity effect

Question 14

Why do perceivers use categories?

A) it is cognitively economical
B) it provides meaning
C) it reduces uncertainty
D) all of these

Question 15

Stereotype threat might make females perform ______ on a maths test if they know they are being compared to ______.

A) better; males
B) worse; males
C) better; females
D) worse; males

Question 16

Mental shortcuts that reduce complex judgments to simple rules of thumb are known as ______.

A) biases
B) heuristics
C) attributions
D) fallacies

Question 17

The tendency to ignore statistical information in favour of representativeness information is known as ______.

A) the representative heuristic
B) the false consensus effect
C) the base rate fallacy
D) the anchoring heuristic

Question 18

The representative heuristic describes the tendency to ______.

A) allocate a set of attributes to someone if they match the prototype of a given category
B) make dispositional attributions when thinking about other peoples' behaviour
C) judge the frequency or probability of an event in terms of how easy it is to think of examples of that event
D) exaggerate how common one's own opinions are in the general population

Question 19

The base rate fallacy describes the tendency to ignore ______ in favour of ______.

A) internal attributions; external attributions
B) complex judgements; simple rules of thumb
C) statistical information; representative information
D) the generally populations opinion; one's own opinion

Question 20

The FALSE consensus effect refers to the tendency to ______.

A) allocate a set of attributes to someone if they match the prototype of a given category
B) make dispositional attributions when thinking about other peoples' behaviour
C) exaggerate how common one's own opinions are in the general population
D) judge the frequency or probability of an event in terms of how easy it is to think of examples of that event

Question 21

In a mock jury study, Greenberg and colleagues found that participants asked to consider a harsh verdict first were subsequently harsher in their final decision than participants asked to consider a lenient verdict first. This study illustrates ______.

A) the anchoring heuristic
B) the false consensus effect
C) the base-rate fallacy
D) none of these

Question 22

The availability heuristic can provide an explanation of ______.

A) the false consensus effect
B) the anchoring heuristic
C) the false consensus effect and the anchoring heuristic
D) none of these

Question 23

Macrae, Hewstone, and Griffiths (1993) outline a number of factors that determine whether people will adopt logical, rational, and time-consuming processing strategies in social inference, or whether they will go for a quick and easy, but quite possibly adequate, solution. Which of the following is NOT one of these factors?

A) time
B) intelligence
C) cognitive load
D) importance

Question 24

The most representative object, person, or characteristic in a particular category can be said to be ______.

A) common
B) familiar
C) prototypical
D) deviant

Question 25

An illusory correlation occurs when people associate ______ behaviours with ______ groups.

A) negative; majority
B) negative; minority
C) positive; minority
D) none of these

Question 26

Illusionary correlation can be explained by which concept?

A) the base rate fallacy
B) the false-consensus effect
C) shared distinctiveness
D) the availability heuristic

Question 27

Categorisation on the basis of the features of a category we encounter first is known as ______.

A) the primacy effect
B) perceptual salience
C) chronic accessibility
D) temporal primacy

Question 28

Perceivers are compelled to categorise because ______.

A) it frees up cognitive resources for other tasks
B) it reduces uncertainty
C) it provides prescriptive norms for understanding ourselves in relation to others
D) all of these

Question 29

The phenomenon whereby when people think about a particular category they can unconsciously begin to act in line with the stereotype associated with the category is known as ______.

A) unconscious transference
B) behavioural assimilation
C) associative learning
D) subtyping