Suppose that you see a male student on your campus who is wearing a suit and a tie. You conclude, "He must be a business major; he couldn't be a psychology major." However, your college has twice as many psychology majors as business majors. Your decision is apparently guided by

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The representativeness heuristic is a mental shortcut that involves making a probability judgment by comparing an object or event to a prototype of the object or event. In this scenario, the assumption that the student is a business major because he is wearing a suit and tie is based on the stereotype that business majors are more likely to dress formally, rather than considering the actual statistical likelihood based on the number of students in each major.

Suppose That You See a Male Student on Your Campus