Suppose that you see a male student on your campus who is wearing a suit and a tie.You conclude,"He must be a business major; he couldn't be a psychology major." However,your college has twice as many psychology majors as business majors.Your decision is apparently guided by

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The student's appearance is being used as a mental shortcut to judge his major, which is an example of the representativeness heuristic. The decision is flawed because it is based solely on appearance and not on actual statistics about the number of psychology and business majors on campus. This is a common error in thinking, as people often rely on stereotypes and mental shortcuts rather than gathering enough information to make an accurate judgment.

Suppose That You See a Male Student on Your Campus