Question 1

Mel has exceeded her budget by at least $200 every month for the last three months. After recognizing that this is a problem, she decides to use the rational decision-making model to decide what to do. What might be the next step she takes if she follows this model?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Mel has exceeded her budget by at...

Question 2

Whenever Jane is successful she takes full credit for what has happened, but whenever she is unsuccessful she attributes her failure to bad luck or blames one of her fellow employees. She is guilty of ________.

Accepted Answer

Jane is exhibiting self-serving bias, which is the tendency to attribute one's successes to internal factors (such as their own abilities), and one's failures to external factors (such as bad luck or the actions of others).

Question 3

Investors bragged about their investing expertise during the stock market rally between 1996 and early 2000. Knowing individuals rely on the self-serving bias to explain failure, which of the following explanations would an investor be most likely to state after the market imploded in 2000?

Accepted Answer

Investors are likely to blame external factors or other people, such as analysts, for their failures due to the self-serving bias, which attributes success to oneself and failures to outside influences.

Question 4

Why is decision making a perceptual issue?

Accepted Answer

Before a decision can be made, there must be a perception that a problem exists. Perception plays a crucial role in identifying the problem and evaluating different alternatives for decision-making.

Question 5

Which of the following statements is not an example of stereotyping?

Accepted Answer

Statement C is simply based on the individual's past performance and does not involve any generalization or stereotyping based on gender, age or any other characteristic, unlike the other statements.

Question 6

A committee is made up of 12 managers: three each from the sales, production, accounting, and human resources departments. They read a comprehensive study of the company they work for, and are asked which of its recommendations are most important. In discussion they find that the managers perceive that the most important recommendations are those concerning their own departments. This finding is most likely the result of what type of bias?

Accepted Answer

Selective perception is when individuals perceive what they want in media messages while ignoring opposing viewpoints. In this case, managers focus on recommendations relevant to their own departments.

Question 7

Shortcuts in judging people are applied in organizations. Which of the following is not an application of a judgement shortcut?

Accepted Answer

Market evaluations are typically based on data analysis and market research rather than judgment shortcuts, which are more commonly applied in interpersonal assessments like performance evaluations and interviews.

Question 8

What is the first step in the rational decision-making model?

Accepted Answer

The first step in the rational decision-making model is to clearly define the problem. Without a clear understanding of the problem, it is difficult to move forward with identifying decision criteria, developing alternatives, and making a decision.

Question 9

Shortcuts in judging others include all of the following except ________.

Accepted Answer

Self-serving bias is a cognitive bias that involves attributing successes to internal factors and failures to external factors, and it is not a shortcut in judging others.

Question 10

When F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "The very rich are different from you and me," and Hemingway replied, "Yes, they have more money," Hemingway refused to engage in what shortcut to judge others?

Accepted Answer

Hemingway refused to engage in stereotyping, which is the tendency to assign characteristics to an entire group of people based on their perceived affiliation with that group. By rejecting the idea that the wealthy are fundamentally different from everyone else, Hemingway demonstrated an unwillingness to make oversimplified assumptions about individuals based on their socioeconomic status.

Question 11

Your rating in a job interview is high in contrast to the candidate who was interviewed directly before you, who was rated extremely low. Your own high rating might be partially attributed to which of the following?

Accepted Answer

The contrast effect is when the interviewer's perception of the previous candidate affects their perception of the current candidate. In this case, the interviewer may perceive the current candidate as more favorable because they are comparing them to the previous candidate who was rated extremely low.

Question 12

What is the term used for a general impression about an individual based on a single characteristic such as intelligence, sociability, or appearance?

Accepted Answer

The term used for a general impression about an individual based on a single characteristic such as intelligence, sociability, or appearance is the halo effect. It refers to the tendency to assume that someone who possesses one positive characteristic also possesses other positive characteristics.

Question 13

A discrepancy between the current state of affairs and some desired state is a ________.

Accepted Answer

A discrepancy between the current state of affairs and some desired state is the definition of a problem, making option C the correct choice. A decision is a choice made between alternatives, a self-fulfilling prophecy is a belief that comes true because we are acting as if it is already true, an expectation is a belief about what will happen in the future, and a stereotype is a fixed and oversimplified image or idea about a particular group or thing. None of these options match the given definition.

Question 14

It's Marisol's first day on a new job. At first she was very nervous, but when she was introduced to her cubicle neighbor, Hanna, she was taken aback by Hanna's soothing smile. Marisol knew that a person with such a beautiful smile could not be bad, and that she would enjoy having her in such close proximity.

Accepted Answer

The description of Marisol being taken aback by Hanna's soothing smile and assuming Hanna must be a good person based solely on that positive trait is an example of the halo effect. This is when we make an overall positive impression of someone based on one positive characteristic.

Question 15

What term is used for the tendency of an individual to attribute his own successes to internal factors while putting the blame for failures on external factors?

Accepted Answer

This phenomenon is known as self-serving bias, where individuals tend to attribute their successes to their own internal factors like abilities and efforts but blame external factors like luck or other individuals for their failures.

Question 16

What is another name for a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Accepted Answer

A self-fulfilling prophecy is also known as the Pygmalion effect, which refers to the phenomenon where an individual's expectations about another person's behavior leads that person to behave in ways that confirm those expectations.

Question 17

What do we call it when we judge someone on the basis of our perception of the group to which he/she belongs?

Accepted Answer

Stereotyping is when we judge someone based on preconceived notions or assumptions about their group identity or characteristics. It can lead to unfair or inaccurate evaluations of individuals and can perpetuate prejudices and discrimination. Grouping, categorizing, assimilating, and prototyping do not necessarily involve making judgments based on group membership.

Question 18

One of the shortcuts used to judge others involves evaluating a person based on how he/she compares to other individuals on the same characteristic. What is this shortcut called?

Accepted Answer

This shortcut is called contrast effects, where an individual is judged based on how they compare to others on the same characteristic. It can lead to unfair or inaccurate evaluations, as the focus is on the differences between individuals rather than their actual qualities or abilities.

Question 19

Because it is impossible for us to assimilate everything we perceive, we engage in ________.

Accepted Answer

Selective perception refers to the process of filtering out or ignoring certain information while attending to others. It is a mechanism that enables us to cope with the overwhelming amount of information we constantly receive from our environment. Memorization, mental desensitization, periodic listening, and linear clustering are not strategies for coping with information overload, but rather some of the different cognitive processes that may occur during information processing.

Question 20

Leone thinks that because her employee, Josef, went to an Ivy League college he is very knowledgeable, and always asks his opinion on the firm's investments. In reality, Josef knows very little about investing, but makes sure he reads up on it so that he can give an informed opinion to Leone. What has occurred in this situation?

Accepted Answer

Leone's belief about Josef's knowledge based solely on his Ivy League education is a stereotype or a preconceived notion, which is a form of profiling. However, the fact that Josef reads up on investing to appear knowledgeable to Leone is evidence of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Josef's behavior is reinforcing Leone's belief that he is an expert in investing when he is not.

Quiz 6: Perception and Individual Decision Making