Demonstrations of judgment heuristics typically focus on how heuristics can lead to poor judgments. However, exclusive focus on the negative consequences of heuristics can prove problematic. We illustrate the problem with the representativeness heuristic and present a study (N = 45) that examined how examples influence understanding of the representativeness heuristic. Students received a definition of the heuristic, a definition plus examples of the heuristic leading to poor judgment, or a definition plus examples of the heuristic leading to both good and poor judgments. The results suggest that providing examples of heuristics leading only to poor judgments undermined comprehension.
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