base-rate fallacy

a decision-making error in which information about the rate of occurrence of some trait in a population (the base-rate information) is ignored or not given appropriate weight. For example, given a choice of the two categories, people might categorize a man as an engineer, rather than a lawyer, if they heard that he enjoyed physics at school—even if they knew that he was drawn from a population consisting of 90% lawyers and 10% engineers. See representativeness heuristic.

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Psychology term of the day

December 23rd 2024

criminal commitment

the confinement of people in mental institutions either because they have been found not guilty by reason of insanity or to establish their competency to stand trial as responsible defendants.