Representativeness Heuristic

For this extra credit blog I will talk about representativeness heuristic.  This is when someone makes a judgement about someone based on looks, careers or where they live.  People tend to judge others this way.  Just because someone dresses very nice and in expensive looking clothing does not make them rich.  Just because someone dresses a little provocative does not make them a slut or promiscuous.  We all have a choice in how we represent ourselves but others will still judge.  Growing up, my sister dressed very wild and somewhat provocative and that lead her to have a “bad” name in school as being a ‘slut’, etc.   This is by far the farthest from the truth.  She did not sleep around and in fact did not even have a boyfriend but because of her state of dress, people used representativeness heuristic and labeled her wrong.  Others are judged the same way and this should stop.  People need to be judged by their character and actions, not how they look, dress or where they live.

 

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