Question

1. Heike's older brother has suffered from chronic depression for several years. Unfortunately, Heike has been incorrectly informed by her parents that there is a 40 percent chance she will also suffer from depression. Explain how the availability heuristic, framing, the confirmation bias, and belief perseverance might lead Heike to conclude that she will definitely be a victim of a severe depressive disorder

Answer 1

Availability heuristics: Availability heuristics is a mental shortcut in which individuals make decisions on the basis of the examples that comes to their mind immediately. In this situation, Heike is informed by her parents that she has a 40 percent chance of suffering from depression. Now, when Heike thinks about depression, the immediate example that comes to her mind is her older brother who has a history of depression. Therefore, she is convinced that she will definitely suffer from depression since her brother has also suffered.

Framing: Framing is a cognitive bias which influences individuals' decision on the basis of how the information was presented, i.e. positively or negatively. People make risky decisions when they have presented information in a negative frame and avoid risk when presented information in a positive frame. In this example, Heike was given the information in a negative frame, and, therefore it made her conclude that she will also suffer from depression.

Belief perseverance: It is the tendency of the individuals to hold onto a belief as true, even if there are contrasting evidence available. In this particular example, Heike was told that she has a 40% chance of getting depression. This piece of information made her belief stronger making her believe that she will definitely suffer from depression.