Question

Jerome recently saw a tv special on psychology in which most of the psychologists interviewed were middle-aged males. when he took his first psychology class, he was surprised to find that his professor was a young female rather than an older, bearded male. jerome's surprise is probably due to his use of the:

Answer 1

Jerome recently saw a TV special on psychology in which most of the psychologists interviewed were middle-aged males. When he took his first psychology class, he was surprised to find that his professor was a young female rather than an older, bearded male. Jerome's surprise is probably due to his use of the availability heuristic.

Answer 2

The correct answer is availability heuristic.

Availability heuristic refers to the phenomenon wherein people take mental shortcuts when deciphering, making a decision, or evaluating certain information. In this instance, after Jerome saw a tv special on psychology in which most of the psychologists interviewed were middle-aged males, he likely associated psychologists and psychology professors as being male and middle-aged. Due to this, when Jerome took his first psychology class, he was surprised to find that his professor was a young female rather than an older, bearded male.