Psicologia para América Latina
On-line version ISSN 1870-350X
Abstract
NUNES, Adriana Leopoldina and SANTOS, Fábio Pinheiro. Social Cognition and Heuristics: The Influence of Stereotypes on Decision Making. Psicol. Am. Lat. [online]. 2021, n.36, pp.183-192. ISSN 1870-350X.
The present work aims to analyze the influence of stereotypes in decision making. For this, a questionnaire with descriptions of situations / profiles was applied to a group of 30 people, male and female, with an average age of 31.26 years. Data analysis was performed descriptively. The results showed that the use of the heuristic of representativeness, by the majority of the participants, occurred both in decision situations in which it involves uncertainty and one that does not involve uncertainty; these findings can contribute to understanding social phenomena in which even with sufficient information, individuals are led by stereotypes to judge social categories. Despite its limitations, this research contributes to the understanding of several social problems and can generate some reflections on the themes of judgment, decision, stereotypes and social cognition. In addition, it can bring contributions about its practical and theoretical implications for the clinical, academic and social areas.
Keywords : heuristics; decision making; social cognition.