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On the reality of the conjunction fallacy.

Authors :
Sides A
Osherson D
Bonini N
Viale R
Source :
Memory & cognition [Mem Cognit] 2002 Mar; Vol. 30 (2), pp. 191-8.
Publication Year :
2002

Abstract

Attributing higher "probability" to a sentence of form p-and-q, relative to p, is a reasoning fallacy only if (1) the word probability carries its modern, technical meaning and (2) the sentence p is interpreted as a conjunct of the conjunction p-and-q. Legitimate doubts arise about both conditions in classic demonstrations of the conjunction fallacy. We used betting paradigms and unambiguously conjunctive statements to reduce these sources of ambiguity about conjunctive reasoning. Despite the precautions, conjunction fallacies were as frequent under betting instructions as under standard probability instructions.

Subjects

Subjects :
Humans
Decision Making
Probability

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
0090-502X
Volume :
30
Issue :
2
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Memory & cognition
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
12035881
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03195280