Question

Once during a hospital stay, you observed a man and a woman (both in health professional attire) talking. You assumed that the man was a physician, and that the woman was a nurse. Later, you found out the opposite was true. What type of heuristic did you use during your initial reaction to the two individuals?

a) Availability heuristic
b) Matching heuristic
c) Representativeness heuristic
d) Vividness heuristic

Answer 1

The heuristic at play was the representativeness heuristic, where the observer assumed professionals' roles based on stereotypical norms.

Step-by-step explanation:

The type of heuristic used during the initial reaction to the two individuals is the representativeness heuristic. This is a cognitive shortcut where individuals categorize someone based on the extent to which that person represents the typical member of a category. In this case, the assumption made was that the man was a physician and the woman was a nurse, owing to stereotypes associated with those professions, rather than judging them based on individual characteristics or statistical reality.