You hear that one of the Smith children is an outstanding Little League player and immediately conclude it's their one son rather than any of their four daughters. You reached your quite possibly erroneous conclusion as the result of

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This is an example of using the representativeness heuristic, where we make judgments based on how well a person or object fits with our preconceived stereotypes or prototypes. In this case, the stereotype may be that boys are usually better at sports than girls, so the assumption is made that the outstanding Little League player must be the son rather than any of the daughters. This may not be true, however, and is therefore possibly erroneous. The confirmation bias (A) involves seeking out information that confirms our pre-existing beliefs, the availability heuristic (B) involves judging the likelihood of events based on how easily they come to mind, and belief perseverance (D) involves clinging to our initial beliefs even when presented with evidence to the contrary.

You Hear That One of the Smith Children Is an Outstanding