This assignment started off by watching a lecture video from Professor Gernsbacher, titled “Judgment and Decision-Making on the Internet”. Following this, we had to read a comic to help us further understand the representativeness heuristic. Next, we read a handout that related to the three primary decision-making heuristics. After, we had to have a one hour chat with our chat group, discussing the examples provided in the handout of how the three primary decision-making heuristics apply to non-Internet use, discussing the examples provided in the lecture video of how the three primary decision-making heuristics apply to Internet use, and brainstorming one additional Internet-use example for all of the three primary decision-making heuristics.
Professor Gernsbacher’s video started by explaining the concept of a heuristic, which is a mental shortcut used during decision making and judgments. She touched on the 3 primary decision-making heuristics, including the Representativeness Heuristic, the Availability Heuristic, and the Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic, and gave examples of each, on and off of the internet.
The representativeness heuristic describes how we fit people or items into categories of what we think they are and what they represent. For example, someone who wears a flannel, has a southern accent, and a bushy beard may seem like a truck driver, because it tends to fit what they may be like. However, this is not always the case, so we have to be careful about this.
The availability heuristic describes that if something is salient to us, we tend to overestimate how likely it is to occur. For example, the video explained that if teens view a photo on Facebook of their friends drinking alcohol, they are more likely to overestimate how many other teens are drinking alcohol.
The anchoring and adjustment heuristic describes how we allow a starting number, considered an anchor, to affect our adjustment of other numbers. For example, they gave the example that if someone is told the average human has 120,000 hairs, and asked to predict how many hairs they have, they are likely to start at that number and go up or down based on other characteristics. The same thing happens if they are told the average person has 80,000 hairs.
The comic showcases how people usually choose products that display the best online ratings, even when there is only 1 review. They describe how most people who reviewed have likely had a very good or very bad experience with the product, which influences overall ratings, and therefore consumer choices. It reinforces that no product is perfect, so it should not be chastised if every review is not 5 stars.
The handout described the 3 main heuristics once again, including examples both from the internet and non-internet. The internet examples were the same ones described in the lecture video, but the non-internet ones were different. For example, for the representativeness heuristic, the more a generic product is like a
name-brand product, the more highly people rate it. For availability heuristic, a person with a certain disease more common in their family is likely to overestimate its prevalence in the general population. For anchoring and adjustment, when asked what percentage of African nations were in the UN, they were given an anchor of 65%, and most answers were close to this original value.
For our online chat, we started by discussing the representativeness heuristic, and how we are drawn towards generic products that resemble to name brand because they are represented more. None of us had much experience with buying stocks, but we talked about how situational events can affect our judgement on how often things occur, often in social settings.
We all related to the availability heuristic. For Erin, it is because a certain disease if pretty common in my family, so it seems like it happens a lot more than it does. Another example was seeing small details about how people dress and assuming that it’s more common than it is because of the availability heuristic. We also talked about how one instance of a run-in with the police can make it seem like that will happen a lot more.
We all agreed that we use anchors to make judgements. We all try to be cautious about falling for the representative heuristic when it comes to online ratings, but sometimes you can’t help it. We also could all related to falling for the availability heuristic on Facebook with seeing being partying and drinking, and for me, cooking fancy food. We assume a lot of these events are more common than they are.
With the anchor and adjustment online, we could all relate to falling for “package deals” because they are framed to look a lot better. The example that we thought of for the representativeness heuristic was seeing people online dressed up in fancy clothes and makeup, and thinking that happens a lot more than it does. For the availability heuristic, we said that we see a lot of new reports on natural disasters, but it doesn’t always mean that it’s more likely to happen to us. For the anchor and adjustment heuristic, we said that using base price as an anchor and adjusting shipping costs can make items look like a lot better of a deal.
Reflecting on this assignment, I think I learned a lot. I had learned about heuristics in general before, and have heard of the availability heuristic too, but the other 2 I was not very familiar with. The lecture video and the handout provided a bunch of great definitions and examples for all of the heuristics, which were really helpful in facilitating my understanding. I think it is important to know about these heuristics because even though they often help us, they are not always correct, so we should be aware of that.
Additionally, I thought it was cool that a comic was included to help explain one of the heuristics. This was a unique approach, and helped me see the concept through a new lens. I appreciated the variety of watching a lecture video, reading a comic, and reading a handout, because it prevented the information in different ways.
In the chat, I liked how we had to talk about examples provided for each of the 3 heuristics in the video and handout. Talking about them again with other people allowed me to keep those ideas circling through my head. By the time the chat was finished, I felt that I had a much greater understanding of the 3 heuristics.
Additionally, it was helpful that we had to come up with online examples of these heuristics ourselves. It is one thing to learn about a concept and be provided with examples, but to come up with your own, you really have to apply that knowledge in order to succeed. It made me think more critically about them, and understand them on a deeper level.
This assignment took awhile to do, but it helped me gain some very valuable knowledge and work on skills! It is good to have some tougher, longer assignments sometimes, because I think it makes me a better student, as well as more patient.
Nicky's Blog 