Your roommate questions how charitable you really are.She says to you,"Give me just one example of the last time you gave money to a homeless person." Odds are that her challenge will convince you that you really are a generous person.Based on research by Norbert Schwarz and his colleagues (1991),why is that?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This is based on the availability heuristic, in which people judge the likelihood of an event based on how easily they can think of examples or instances of it. When your roommate challenges you to give an example of your generosity, it is easy for you to bring to mind one example that supports your self-schema (i.e., the belief that you are a charitable person). This convinces you that you are indeed a generous person, even if you may not have given money to a homeless person recently.

Your Roommate Questions How Charitable You Really Are