PSYC 2310 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Availability Heuristic, Social Cognition, How We Think

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2310
• Professor: Saba Safdar

Document Summary

Automatic thinking: a type of decision-making process that occurs at an unconscious or automatic level and is entirely effortless and unintentional: this type of thinking relies on heuristics. Heuristics: mental shortcuts that are often used to form judgements and make decisions. Controlled or effortful thinking: thinking that is effortful, conscious and intentional: we tend to use this type of thinking when we have the time and motivation necessary to make the considerable effort this type of thinking involves. Social cognition: how people think about the social world, and in particular how people select, interpret and use information to make judgements about the world. One of the most common shortcuts we use in making decisions about the word is relying on our intuition, instead of relying on more objective information. Intuition: a decision-making shortcut in which we rely on our instinct instead of relying on more objective information.