Jennifer and Nate are walking along the street when they see a man walk out of a convenience store clutching a bag. The owner of the store runs out and shouts for the man to stop and come back.
Jennifer immediately assumes that there has been a robbery, whereas Nate immediately assumes that the man forgot to get his change and that the store owner wants to give it to him. What is the best explanation for why Jennifer and Nate interpreted this event differently?
a. Jennifer and Nate were engaged in controlled thinking that resulted in different assumptions about what was going on.
b. Jennifer and Nate have different personalities.
c. Jennifer and Nate fell prey to the self-fulfilling prophecy.
d. Different schemas were accessible in Jennifer and Nate's minds, perhaps because they had different recent experiences that primed different schemas.
Question 2
Which of the following is the best summary of research on automatic thinking?
a. Automatic thinking is vital to human survival, but it is not perfect and can produce mistaken judgments that have important consequences.
b. Automatic thinking is amazingly accurate and rarely produces errors of any consequence.
c. Automatic thinking is a problem because it usually produces mistaken judgments.
d Automatic thinking works best when it occurs consciously.