A defense attorney emphasizes to a jury that her client works full-time, supports his family, and enjoys leisure-time hobbies. A
lthough none of this information is relevant to the trial, it is designed to make the defendant appear to be a typical member of the local community. The lawyer is most clearly attempting to take advantage of:
When we want to make our case or make a decision but we don't have enough resources available to us or enough information we take a short cut and we use our pre-existing information to make judgements.
The representativeness heuristic is when we make estimations based on the likelihood that the current event can relate to our pre-existing infomation.
For example this defense attorney uses what he already knows about his client to make assumptions that represent what he doesn't know for sure about him. A defense attorney emphasizes to a jury that her client works full-time, supports his family, and enjoys leisure-time hobbies. Using this existing information the attorney has then concluded that this means his client is a typical member of the community ; which may not be true but he used what was available information to try and convince the case in his client's favor.
