In a familiar paradigm for the study of intuitive prediction, subjects judge the
probability that an individual is a member of a specified social category defined by
a profession or an avocation. on the basis of a personality sketch Kahneman and
Tversky, 1973; Tversky and Kahneman, 1982.. Probability is judged by the similarity
of the individual’s personality to the stereotype of the target category. For example,
an individual described as ‘‘argumentative, flashy, self-confident and competitive’’
will be judged more likely to be a lawyer than to be an engineer, because the
description resembles the stereotype of the former profession more than that of
the latter. In this paradigm, extension neglect takes the form of inadequate
sensitivity to the base rates of outcomes