Social Cognition How We Think about the Social World Part 4

129. Jacob’s friend, Tom asks him, “Do you think I’m short-tempered?” Jacob had never really thought about how short-tempered or calm Tom was until he had asked. Nonetheless, Jacob was able to provide him a quick answer. What social cognitive process was most likely involved in this judgment? a. self-fulfilling prophecy b. controlled thinking c. base rate heuristic d. availability heuristic Answer: D Difficulty: 3 Page(s) in Text: 59 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: APPLICATION 130. Blair’s co-worker, Susan, asks her, “Am I a good employee?” Blair hadn’t really thought about it before, but using the availability heuristic, which of the following thought processes is she most likely to have? a. Blair recalls the last few times she’s seen Susan do a good job, and tells her yes. b. Blair makes a list of every behavior Susan has done in the organization before answering. c. Blair uses the oldest information she can recall about Susan’s performance. d. Blair makes a snap judgment based on what she thinks Susan wants to hear. Answer: A Difficulty: 2 Page(s) in Text: 59 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: APPLICATION 131. When people use the availability heuristic to make quick judgments, they are likely to do all of the following except a. use it to make judgments about other people. b. use it to make judgments about themselves. c. base the decision on lots of information about a person. d. bring easy examples to mind. Answer: C Difficulty: 2 Page(s) in Text: 59 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: FACTUAL 132. The authors of your text report that a college professor asked students to list either two or ten ways to improve the course. Because students used the availability heuristic, which group of students gave the professor the highest course ratings overall? a. They were actually the same. b. the students who were asked to list ten improvements c. the students who were asked to list two improvements d. the students who skipped listing any improvements Answer: B Difficulty: 3 Page(s) in Text: 63-65 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: FACTUAL 133. If your professor asks you to list ten ways to improve the course and you cannot do it, how will that affect your course ratings overall? a. You will feel the same as if you weren’t asked to list any improvements.. b. You will feel negatively about the course. c. You will feel positively about the course. d. You will feel neutrally about the course. Answer: C Difficulty: 3 30 Page(s) in Text: 59 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: CONCEPTUAL 134. Consider information from the authors of your text about the availability heuristic. If you wanted to improve customer satisfaction survey ratings for your company, which of the following would you ask customers in terms of their suggestions for improvement? a. Don’t ask them for any criticisms or suggestions for improvement. b. Ask them to list their biggest criticism/suggestion. c. Ask them to list as many as they can. d. Ask them to list ten criticisms/suggestions. Answer: D Difficulty: 3 Page(s) in Text: 59 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: APPLICATION 135. When people classify a stimulus based on how similar it appears to be to the typical case, they are using the ________ heuristic. a. availability b. exemplar c. correspondence d. representativeness Answer: D Difficulty: 1 Page(s) in Text: 59 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: FACTUAL 136. When Becky meets her new roommate, she sees that she has her hair dyed blue and has decorated her side of the room with lots of handmade ceramic pots and paintings. She then assumes that her roommate has multiple piercings and listens to punk rock. She has used the ________ heuristic in making this assumption. a. base rate b. availability c. representativeness d. anchoring and adjustment Answer: C Difficulty: 2 Page(s) in Text: 59 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: APPLICATION 137. You wrongly assume that because of Linda’s short hair, unshaved legs, and liberal views she is a political activist. Your (incorrect) assumption was based on the a. representativeness heuristic. b. availability heuristic. c. anchoring and adjustment heuristic. d. self-fulfilling prophecy. Answer: A Difficulty: 3 Page(s) in Text: 59 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: APPLICATION 138. “If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck,” the adage goes. This expression best captures the essence of the a. fundamental attribution error. 31 b. representativeness heuristic. c. availability heuristic. d. correspondence heuristic. Answer: B Difficulty: 3 Page(s) in Text: 59 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: CONCEPTUAL 139. Which example best describes the representativeness heuristic? a. “To decide if someone is a lawyer, I compare that person’s characteristics to the characteristics of the typical lawyer.” b. “To decide if someone is dishonest, I try to recall instances of that person’s dishonest behavior.” c. “To decide if someone is an environmentalist, I consider the proportion of environmentalists in the population.” d. “To decide if someone is conscientious, I consider how easy it is to imagine them acting in a non-conscientious manner.” Answer: A Difficulty: 2 Page(s) in Text: 59 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: CONCEPTUAL 140. When people use information about the relative frequency of members of different categories in the population to make judgments (e.g., percentage of students who are psychology majors), they are using a. the representativeness heuristic. b. the availability heuristic. c. census data. d. base rate information. Answer: D Difficulty: 2 Page(s) in Text: 60 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: FACTUAL 141. Julie sees an Asian couple at the New York City Zoo. According to __________, she may assume they are foreigners touring the area, but according to __________, she should assume that given the low tourism rate in her town, they are actually local residents. a. base rate information; availability heuristic b. representativeness heuristic; base rate information c. availability heuristic; base rate information d. representativeness heuristic; availability heuristic Answer: B Difficulty: 3 Page(s) in Text: 60 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: APPLICATION 142. Research by Kahneman and Tversky (1973) presented by the authors of your text found that people do not use base rate information sufficiently, and pay more attention to a. how well the information they have about a person represents a certain category. b. the extent to which people seem to resemble someone familiar. c. actual statistical data about base rates. d. physical characteristics and categories. Answer: A Difficulty: 2 Page(s) in Text: 60 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: CONCEPTUAL 32 143. Although there are only a few runners on your college track team, you see a woman on campus who has the physique of a runner. You decide that she’s a member of the track team. Your conclusion is based on a. the representativeness heuristic. b. the availability heuristic. c. base rate information. d. biased sampling. Answer: A Difficulty: 2 Page(s) in Text: 60 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: APPLICATION 144. Physicians often say “When you hear hoofbeats behind you, think horses, not zebras.” In terms of this chapter, this idea most closely resembles a. base rate information b. social cognition c. chronic accessibility d. self-fulfilling prophecy Answer: A Difficulty: 3 Page(s) in Text: 60 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: CONCEPTUAL 145. Nutz and Boltz, Inc. employs 100 people; 80 are lawyers and 20 are engineers. Albert, a lawyer at the company, is quiet, likes puzzles, and carries a calculator. Most people, when asked whether Albert is a lawyer or an engineer, will guess that he is an engineer. These people are using ________ to make this faulty guess. A correct guess would have been made if they had used ________. a. the representativeness heuristic; base rate information b. base rate information; the representativeness heuristic c. the representativeness heuristic; the availability heuristic d. base rate information; anchoring and adjustment Answer: A Difficulty: 3 Page(s) in Text: 60 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: APPLICATION 146. When asked to guess whether Mark is from Montana or California, you guess California because more people live in California. You have used ________ in making your decision. a. the representativeness heuristic b. base rate information c. the availability heuristic d. counterfactual thinking Answer: B Difficulty: 3 Page(s) in Text: 60 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: APPLICATION 147. If accurate judgments are our goal, we should use base rate information instead of the representativeness heuristic when a. we lack specific information about the person. b. base rates are high in the sample. c. base rates are low in the sample. d. the decision is a complicated one. 33 Answer: A Difficulty: 2 Page(s) in Text: 60 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: CONCEPTUAL 148. You are taking a university course with a combined graduate and undergraduate enrollment. You know that there are many more undergraduate than graduate students enrolled in this course. There is a woman who looks to be about thirty sitting next to you. If you use only the base rate to guess her student status, you would guess that she is a(n) ________ student because ________. a. graduate; she’s older b. undergraduate; you have a bias to expect undergraduates in your courses c. graduate; she fits your schema for graduate students d. undergraduate; there are more of them enrolled in the class Answer: D Difficulty: 3 Page(s) in Text: 60 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: APPLICATION 149. With regard to the use of base rate information, the evidence suggests that people a. totally disregard base rate information and rely only on the similarity of information to a category. b. are very astute at using base rate information. c. focus too much on individual characteristics and insufficiently on base rates. d. focus equally on individual characteristics and base rate information. Answer: C Difficulty: 2 Page(s) in Text: 60 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: CONCEPTUAL 150. How reasonable is it for someone to rely on the representativeness heuristic to make a quick judgment? a. Not reasonable at all—it is usually misleading. b. Often perfectly reasonable when there is no other information available. c. Reasonable when there is base rate information to refer to. d. Somewhat reasonable, but only if you put considerable thought into it first. Answer: B Difficulty: 3 Page(s) in Text: 60 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: CONCEPTUAL 151. When there is no other information available, it is ________ reasonable to rely on the representativeness heuristic to make a quick judgment. a. not b. perfectly c. somewhat d. never Answer: B Difficulty: 3 Page(s) in Text: 60 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: CONCEPTUAL 152. The “Barnum effect,” in which vague statements about one’s future or personality may be seen as accurate and valid, occurs because of the 34 a. self-fulfilling prophecies it creates. b. representativeness heuristic. c. base rate information it relies on. d. principle of the “sucker effect.” Answer: B Difficulty: 3 Page(s) in Text: 61 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: CONCEPTUAL 153. Isabella goes to a fortune teller who tells her, “You are the type of person who is very outgoing and sociable, yet at times you enjoy being alone.” Isabella thinks this captures her personality amazingly well, because she finds many instances in her memories of such behaviors. Isabella has just fallen prey to the a. base rate heuristic. b. priming effect. c. Barnum effect. d. self-fulfilling prophecy. Answer: C Difficulty: 2 Page(s) in Text: 61 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: APPLICATION 154. The cocktail party effect refers to a. one’s inability to use controlled processes while inebriated. b. the difficulties people have in making accurate judgments during a hangover. c. the change in which heuristics people rely on when they are under the influence of alcohol. d. the automatic shift in attention when you hear your name, but were already engaged in a conversation. Answer: D Difficulty: 1 Page(s) in Text: 62 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: FACTUAL 155. Ava is at a party, deep in conversation with her friends. Suddenly, she hears her name mentioned in another conversation and her attention turns to monitor that conversation. Clearly, Ava had been unconsciously monitoring the other conversations. Such experiences demonstrate the a. representativeness heuristic. b. effects of priming. c. cocktail party effect. d. availability heuristic. Answer: C Difficulty: 1 Page(s) in Text: 62 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: APPLICATION 156. If you were hoping that other research participants would leave you money, according to research by Shariff and Norenzayan (2007), you would hope they were primed with a. images of angels. b. words related to God or fairness to others. c. subliminal images of religious symbols. d. words such as “mother” and “kind.” Answer: B Difficulty: 2 Page(s) in Text: 62 35 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: CONCEPTUAL 157. In the study by Shariff and Norenzayan (2007) presented in your text, when participants were primed with words related to God or fairness to others, they behaved a. more selflessly. b. more selfishly. c. selflessly, but only if they themselves were religious. d. unpredictably, because the researchers used an ineffective prime. Answer: A Difficulty: 2 Page(s) in Text: 62 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: FACTUAL 158. Based on the study by Shariff and Norenzayan (2007) presented in your text, if you pass by several churches, then a block or so later a homeless person asks you for change, how are you likely to behave? a. You would probably take the person to the churches you passed to get help. b. You would be very unlikely to give the person money. c. You would be more likely to give the person money. d. Passing by churches would not prime you to give more money, but passing by banks might. Answer: C Difficulty: 2 Page(s) in Text: 62 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: APPLICATION 159. Considering the results of the study by Shariff and Norenzayan (2007) presented in your text, why is it that when people were primed with words related to God or fairness to others, they left more money for the next person? a. Goals of altruism were activated without the participants’ awareness. b. Participants believed their sense of fairness was being evaluated. c. Participants were told that the next participant would know how much money they left and their name. d. Goals of generosity versus frugality were made salient. Answer: A Difficulty: 2 Page(s) in Text: 62 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: CONCEPTUAL 160. The study by Shariff and Norenzayan (2007) presented in your text showed that under some conditions, participants would be more likely to leave more money for a stranger. What is the larger contribution to understanding social cognition that this study makes? a. Priming is an inconsistent, ineffective way to change behavior. b. Goals can be activated and influence peoples’ behavior without their knowledge. c. People’s behavior is affected more strongly when they are primed consciously. d. People become more charitable when they believe their names will be associated with their donations. Answer: B Difficulty: 2 Page(s) in Text: 62 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: CONCEPTUAL 161. In the study by Shariff and Norenzayan (2007) presented in your text, what made people behave more altruistically, actually leaving more money for a stranger? They were a. primed with words related to money. b. primed with images of wealth. 36 c. told the next participant would know their names. d. primed with words related to God. Answer: D Difficulty: 2 Page(s) in Text: 62 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: FACTUAL 162. Eva runs an unscrupulous organization that attempts to scam money from people while posing as a charity. Based on the research by Shariff and Norenzayan (2007), the best strategy for doing this involves a. mentioning fairness several times in the brochures b. putting happy pictures on the brochures c. telling potential donors they are “stars” d. mentioning potential donors’ names several times Answer: A Difficulty: 2 Page(s) in Text: 62 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: APPLICATION 163. Adele is from France, where rabbits are eaten regularly. She can tell you the most tender part of the rabbit, how long to cook one, and how big a rabbit you would need to feed five people. Marsha is from the United States, where rabbits are pets, and bring colored eggs to children in the spring. She hasn’t a clue about how to cook one, even if she wanted to. This example best illustrates a. the On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking. b. the universality of schemas. c. that rabbits are ambiguous stimuli. d. personality differences in the contents of schemas. Answer: A Difficulty: 2 Page(s) in Text: 63 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: APPLICATION 164. Culture can influence our schemas by influencing a. the amount of cognitive activity required to engage socially. b. our ability to creatively interpret the world. c. what we notice and remember. d. how long we attend to important information. Answer: C Difficulty: 3 Page(s) in Text: 63 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: CONCEPTUAL 165. Zuzanna had a hard time remembering the names of streets when she traveled because they were in a different language. In addition, the buildings did not look like what she was used to, so she got lost several times. These problems emphasize the role of schemas in a. influencing what we notice and remember b. influencing how we feel about people c. determining what is accessible d. determining how much cognitive activity we need to use Answer: C Difficulty: 3 Page(s) in Text: 63 Topic: On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking Skill: APPLICATION 37