Jared, a high school senior, was searching for colleges and found a website for a school in which all the students were well dressed in the photos. Jared said to himself, "That place looks too sophisticated for me. I want to go somewhere that is more casual," and he left the website. Jared is MOST likely:
A) engaging in after-the-fact reasoning.
B) reasoning by representativeness.
C) using the availability heuristic.
D) falling prey to hindsight bias.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Jared is basing his decision on the representativeness heuristic, as he is judging the entire college based on a small sample size (the photos on the website). He assumes that because the students in the photos are well dressed, the entire school must be too sophisticated for him.

Jared, a High School Senior, Was Searching for Colleges and Found