Author Question: Describe the study in which German judges were asked to make a decision about appropriate sentences ... (Read 53 times)

WhattoUnderstand · **on:** Jun 22, 2018

Describe the study in which German judges were asked to make a decision about appropriate sentences for wrong-doers. After reading about the case,

judges received either harsh or more lenient recommendations from either a journalist, a random roll of the dice, or a seasoned prosecutor. What did the study show? What key heuristic did it powerfully (and worryingly) illustrate? What reason can you give for why the recommendations were so powerful?

Question 2

Briefly describe how the availability heuristic affects our judgments or decisions. This heuristic appears to be used for two different kinds of judgments.

What two rules are to be found in our use of the availability heuristic and for what two kinds of judgments are they likely to be used?
What will be an ideal response?

sultana.d · **Reply #1 on:** Jun 22, 2018

Answer to Question 1

Answer:
These seasoned professionals received info about a court case, as well as sentencing recommendations that were either harsh or lenient. The bottom line is that the professionals were unable to resist using the recommendations as an anchor when they were attempting to arrive at a sentencing decision. That is, when the anchor was lenient, they arrived on average at a more lenient sentence, whereas the converse was true for harsh anchors. This was true even when the recommendation was utterly random (a roll of the dice). Recommendations of this sort exerted a powerful effect because, even though judges made adjustments to the anchor, the adjustments were not sufficient to pull far enough away from the anchor.

Answer to Question 2

Answer:
The availability heuristic is a cognitive rule of thumb that is based on the ease of bringing information to mind. If something is easier to bring to mind, then we think that it must be important or diagnostic, and that we should use it to make a judgment or decision. But ease of use is not the only way in which this heuristic is employed. We are more likely to use the ease-of-use rule for judgments involving feelings, whereas we tend to rely more on an amount-of-info rule when our judgment or decision is being based on information or facts.