Question

As good consumers of psychology, we must be aware that not all vivid cases of mental illness—such as when a high school student shoots fellow students and teachers or when a person goes on a public shooting spree—are committed by truly violent people. Social psychologists say that a(n) ________ exists in that we believe that all people with mental illnesses are violent, which is not accurate.

Answer 1

Answer:

The options are given below:

A. discriminatory regulation

B. heuristic

C. illusory correlation

D. foot-in-the-door model

The correct option is C. illusory correlation

Explanation:

In the field of psychology, illusory correlation refers to the phenomenon in which people perceive a relationship or connection between variables even when such relationship or connection do not exist. Oftentimes, people tend to attach a particular behavior or actions to a particular set of people, for example, when a person believes that people who live urban environments are rude. This belief will make the person think that every rude person they meet, lives in the city, rather than a rural area.

Therefore, in the scenario given above, where people assume there exists a relationship between violence and mental illnesses, when in fact, there is none, we say it is an Illusory Correlation.