Heuristics Due Monday, September 25 by 11:59 p.m. Please read the section on “Heuristics” in your text, pages 47-51 (pages may be slightly different in the electronic version.)

Heuristics

Due Monday, September 25 by 11:59 p.m.

Please read the section on “Heuristics” in your text, pages 47-51 (pages may be slightly different in the electronic version.)

Heuristics are rules of thumb for solving problems and making judgments. For this assignment, you are required to reflect on your everyday decision-making process and identify instances where you may have used heuristics to make quick judgments. Specifically, you will explore the three common heuristics: affect heuristic, representative heuristic, and availability heuristic.

For your assignment, write a 1-2 page paper answering the following questions. A separate answer needs to be given for each question, with different examples for both questions:

Describe an everyday situation where you made a decision based on each of the three heuristics. Explain how each heuristic influenced your decision-making process, and what factors contributed to your decision. You will be taking one example and applying all 3 heuristics to it.
Reflect on each heuristic and explain how it can impact our judgment and decision-making processes. For each heuristic, provide YOUR OWN example of how it might lead to biases or errors in judgment. (3 reflections, with 1 unique example for each.)
PLEASE NOTE: To clarify for affect heuristic, many people read the section and think it simply means our emotions affect our actions. Attitude heuristic involves a stored evaluation of someone or something that helps us to make a decision and our current mood can affect that decision or evaluation. If you simply give an example of how your mood affected your action, you may not get credit. Show how mood or personal opinion was the reason for your decision and that you did not consider all alternatives. For clarification, refer to the book example on Ronald Reagan.

Please submit your paper using only Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format (rtf). Your paper should be double spaced, with one inch margins. Please use only Times or Times New Roman 12 point font. In this format, there should be a MINIMUM of 350 words.

Assignments will be checked for non-original material using SimCheck.

You will only be allowed to submit your assignment once. Be sure to get it right the first time!