Day 144 of 150 Logic Difficulty 6/10
Hard questions get silently swapped for easier ones we can answer
Quick answer
Hard questions get silently swapped for easier ones we can answer. Today's question (Attribute substitution) asks about a finding from Kahneman, D., & Frederick, S. in 2002. The correct option is When a target judgment is hard, people unconsciously substitute an easier 'heuristic attribute' and answer that instead — full explanation, primary source, and glossary cross-links below.
Today's question
Kahneman & Frederick's (2002) attribute-substitution account explains many heuristic-and-bias phenomena as cases where:
Reveal the answer and explanation
Correct: B — When a target judgment is hard, people unconsciously substitute an easier 'heuristic attribute' and answer that instead
Kahneman & Frederick (2002) re-described representativeness, availability, and affect heuristics under one mechanism: when a target judgment (probability, frequency, value) is hard, people unconsciously substitute a related but easier attribute (similarity, ease of retrieval, immediate emotional response) and report a judgment based on that. The substitution account explains the Linda problem, base-rate neglect, and many framing effects without requiring people to be 'irrational' — it is a working-memory shortcut that often serves them well. The framework anchors System-1 / System-2 dual-process accounts that became central to behavioral economics and modern judgment research.
About the source
Kahneman, D., & Frederick, S. (2002). Representativeness revisited: Attribute substitution in intuitive judgment. In T. Gilovich, D. Griffin, & D. Kahneman (Eds.), Heuristics and Biases (pp. 49–81). Cambridge University Press.
Every Cognition Bible question cites a primary source — a paper, book chapter, or monograph that exists, that we can point to on Google Scholar, and whose finding the question accurately summarizes. No fabricated authority strings, no name-drops without paper-level grounding.
More from the Cognition Bible
Done with today's question? Play the FOKIQ Daily — six puzzles across six cognitive domains, free, every day.