Which heuristic involves looking for the most representative answer based on prototypes?

The representativeness heuristic involves making judgments about the probability of an event based on how similar it is to a prototype or a stereotype. This heuristic leads individuals to categorize situations or objects based on their similarity to existing mental representations or typical examples they hold. For instance, if someone encounters a new person who resembles the stereotype of a librarian—say, they wear glasses, are quiet, and have a book in hand—they may conclude that this person is indeed a librarian, despite lacking actual evidence of their profession.

This cognitive shortcut often helps in quickly assessing situations, but it can also lead to errors if the prototype is not representative of the entire population. In contrast, the other options represent different cognitive phenomena: the availability heuristic refers to making decisions based on the information that comes readily to mind, functional fixedness is an obstacle to problem-solving where one cannot see an object being used in a different way, and causation bias involves incorrectly attributing a cause to an event based on preconceived notions. Understanding the representativeness heuristic is essential for recognizing how judgments are influenced by stereotypes and prototypes in everyday decision-making.