The representativeness heuristic is a mental shortcut that individuals use to make judgments and decisions based on how closely an event or object resembles a certain prototype or stereotype. For example, if asked to judge whether a person is a lawyer or a librarian, an individual may use the representativeness heuristic by considering how closely the person’s characteristics match the stereotype of each profession. If the person is well-dressed and speaks with confidence, they may be judged to be more representative of a lawyer than a librarian. However, this heuristic can lead to errors in decision-making, as it relies on stereotypes and ignores other relevant information.
