Different cognitive biases can threaten a negotiator’s effective problem solving and
creativity. Of those threats, which of the following scenarios best illustrates the illusory
correlation bias?
A. A person hears that women living in San Francisco have a higher rate of breast
cancer and concludes that living in San Francisco causes breast cancer.
B. A student takes an aptitude test and scores poorly. Later that student learns that the
test was mis-scored, but the student still feels like they failed.
C. A person learns that 60% of a country’s population is uneducated and that 70% of the
crimes in that country are violent, and concludes that uneducated people are responsible
for the violent crime rates. (pp.191-192)
D. A person believes that morally “good” people are likely to win lotteries, and bad
people are the victims of crimes
A number of biases affect a negotiator’s ability to negotiate effectively. One of these
biases, the confirmation bias, is best defined as:
A. the tendency of people to see what they want to see when evaluating a situation for
themselves (p. 6)
B. being aware of one’s own incompetence
C. setting high aspirations and attempting to achieve as much as possible
D. settling for something less than what could have been achieved with better effort