The Development of Thinking and Reasoning

8Culture and developments in heuristics and biases from preschool through adolescence

Challenges and implications for social development

Paul Klaczynski

Introduction

The “heuristics and biases” research program arose from findings that adults’ responses on numerous tasks deviated from traditionally prescribed norms (e.g., Evans & Over, 1996; Kahneman & Tversky, 1972, 1996; Kahneman, Slovic, & Tversky, 1982; Stanovich & West, 1999). Repeated demonstrations of apparently irrational thinking led to questions about the adaptive value of heuristic shortcuts and sparked a plethora of theoretical and philosophical debates. Most polemics centered on rationality and its nature, but other controversies were spawned by analyses of “heuristics and biases” ...