Seventy percent of the students in a classroom are women and 30 percent are men. One student is described as ambitious, athletic, and assertive. Why are most people likely to think this description refers to a male student?
A) They are using the availability heuristic.
B) They are using the representativeness heuristic.
C) People seek only confirming information.
D) People tend to make relative comparisons.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The most likely reason for people to think the description refers to a male student is that they are using the representativeness heuristic. This heuristic refers to our tendency to judge the likelihood of an event by how well it seems to match a particular prototype or stereotype. In this case, the stereotype of an ambitious, athletic, and assertive person may be more associated with males than females, leading people to assume that the student in question is male.

Seventy Percent of the Students in a Classroom Are Women