The Representativeness Heuristic and the Conjunction Fallacy Effect in Children's Decision Making.

The use of the representativeness heuristic by second, fourth, and sixth graders showed a developmental increase in (a) base rate information and (b) information consistent with stereotypes about the story characters. Children used and extended information about the elderly to base their judgments on their construal of individuating information. Conjunction problems, concerning how likely elderly or young adults would engage in certain occupations or activities, showed children susceptible to the conjunction fallacy. Findings on both problems indicate the use of decision heuristics in the early grade-school years, and thus should be the years for beginning programs to lessen errors in social-decision judgments.

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