LINDA IS BACK: CONTROVERSIES AROUND THE CONJUCTION FALLACY IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF REASONING
Abstract In a seminal work, Tversky and Kahneman (1983) showed that in some contexts people tend to believe that a conjunction of events (e.g., Linda is a bank teller and is active in the feminist movement) is more likely to occur than one of the conjuncts (e.g., Linda is a bank teller). This belief violates the conjunction rule in probability theory. Tversky and Kahneman called this phenomenon the “conjunction fallacy”. Researchers in psychology and philosophy have engaged in important controversies around the conjunction fallacy. The goal of my dissertation is to explore four of these controversies. First, I address the issue of the nature of the conjunction fallacy. Is the conjunction fallacy mainly due to a misunderstanding of the problem by participants or is it mainly due to a genuine reasoning bias? I show that the empirical evidence in the literature goes against the view that the conjunction fallacy is due to some misunderstanding. Thus, I support the view that the conjunction fallacy is indeed due to some reasoning bias. Second, I explore empirical controversies around factors that influence the conjunction fallacy. I report an empirical study that sheds some light on these controversies. For example, an important dispute is about whether the conjunction fallacy disappears when conjunction problems are couched in frequentist terms. The results of my study show that this claim is true only in some specific contexts, but not in general. Third, I address the controversy around the use of the probability calculus to assess people’s performance. I analyze some objections against the use of such a standard and provide some responses. Fourth, I address the impact of the conjunction fallacy studies on the issue of human rationality. Does the fact that most people commit the conjunction fallacy imply that human beings are not rational? I argue that the position we take on this issue depends on the conception of rationality we hold. I show the consequences of the conjunction fallacy experiments for three different conceptions of rationality that have been proposed in the literature.
เธอจะกลับมา: CONTROVERSIES รอบเข้าใจผิด CONJUCTION ในจิตวิทยาของการใช้เหตุผลAbstract In a seminal work, Tversky and Kahneman (1983) showed that in some contexts people tend to believe that a conjunction of events (e.g., Linda is a bank teller and is active in the feminist movement) is more likely to occur than one of the conjuncts (e.g., Linda is a bank teller). This belief violates the conjunction rule in probability theory. Tversky and Kahneman called this phenomenon the “conjunction fallacy”. Researchers in psychology and philosophy have engaged in important controversies around the conjunction fallacy. The goal of my dissertation is to explore four of these controversies. First, I address the issue of the nature of the conjunction fallacy. Is the conjunction fallacy mainly due to a misunderstanding of the problem by participants or is it mainly due to a genuine reasoning bias? I show that the empirical evidence in the literature goes against the view that the conjunction fallacy is due to some misunderstanding. Thus, I support the view that the conjunction fallacy is indeed due to some reasoning bias. Second, I explore empirical controversies around factors that influence the conjunction fallacy. I report an empirical study that sheds some light on these controversies. For example, an important dispute is about whether the conjunction fallacy disappears when conjunction problems are couched in frequentist terms. The results of my study show that this claim is true only in some specific contexts, but not in general. Third, I address the controversy around the use of the probability calculus to assess people’s performance. I analyze some objections against the use of such a standard and provide some responses. Fourth, I address the impact of the conjunction fallacy studies on the issue of human rationality. Does the fact that most people commit the conjunction fallacy imply that human beings are not rational? I argue that the position we take on this issue depends on the conception of rationality we hold. I show the consequences of the conjunction fallacy experiments for three different conceptions of rationality that have been proposed in the literature.
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