The Conjunction Fallacy
- 1 June 1984
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
- Vol. 10 (2) , 243-252
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167284102010
Abstract
The present investigation adopted a debiasing approach to the judgmental error known as the conjunction fallacy (Tversky & Kahneman, 1982). Such an approach was used to determine the extent to which the conjunction fallacy reflects task specific misunderstanding of particular judgment problems. The results suggest that (a) subjects' misunderstanding of conjunction problems is indeed somewhat task specific, and (b) a debiasing approach can effectively lower but not eliminate the conjunctive error rate for problems that do not strongly implicate representativeness thinking. Educational strategies based on statistical and probabilistic knowledge are discussed as an approach to debiasing inferential errors like the conjunction fallacy.Keywords
This publication has 8 references indexed in Scilit:
- Inductive reasoning: Competence or skill?Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1983
- Mathematics and Science Learning: A New ConceptionScience, 1983
- On the study of statistical intuitionsPublished by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,1982
- Improving inductive inferencePublished by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,1982
- DebiasingPublished by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,1982
- Judgments of and by representativenessPublished by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,1982
- Cost benefit analysis and the art of motorcycle maintenancePolicy Sciences, 1977
- Subjective probability: A judgment of representativenessCognitive Psychology, 1972