Imagine an experiment in which participants were told of a previously unknown tribe living on a Pacific island.Only one member of this tribe had been observed so far,and he was found to be obese.When asked how likely it was that all members of the tribe were obese,participants were unwilling to extrapolate from this single observation.This shows that participants

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The fact that participants were unwilling to extrapolate from a single observation suggests that they are sensitive to the sample size and understand that making a conclusion based on a small sample size is not reliable. This is an example of participants taking into account the sample size when making a judgment. It is not necessarily an indication of the use of representative heuristic, prior beliefs or fear of making errors.

Imagine an Experiment in Which Participants Were Told of a Previously