When Mandy and Joe meet,Joe tells her that he loves math and computers and his favorite hobbies have always involved building things.Mandy concludes that Joe must be an engineering student rather than a liberal arts student,even though there are many more liberal arts than engineering students at their school.Mandy is using the _____ heuristic and ignoring _____.
A) representativeness; base rates
B) availability; base rates
C) representativeness; subjective likelihood
D) availability; subjective likelihood

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Mandy is using the representativeness heuristic, which is a mental shortcut where people classify someone or something based on how similar it is to a typical prototype. In this case, Joe's interests fit the prototype of an engineering student. However, she is ignoring the base rate, which is the proportion of engineering students to liberal arts students at their school. This means that even though there are more liberal arts students, Mandy is basing her judgment solely on Joe's interests.

When Mandy and Joe Meet,Joe Tells Her That He Loves