Deck 9: Attribution, Images and Editing Without Bias

Question 1

What is base-rate information?

A) the rate at which data is accumulated
B) the frequency with which an event occurs in a population
C) information about the basis of rates in the population
D) data about the percentage of cases in a population
E) B and D

Answer 1

E

Question 2

The preference for anecdotal over base-rate information can lead people to mischaracterize events.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

If an anecdote is used in a news story, it doesn't have to be representative of the larger point of the story, but it should be extremely vivid and interesting.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

As discussed in this chapter, in cognitive terms, the word "attribution" means:

A) the identification of the source of information in a news story
B) explaining the characteristics of sources; their attributes
C) weighing the internal and external elements of a situation
D) how people explain the causes of behaviors and events
E) none of the above

Question 5

Attribution errors can perpetuate gender-based stereotypes by offering different explanations for the same behavior.

Question 6

Which of the terms below describes the tendency for an observer to overestimate the role of personal, internal factors in affecting behavior and to underestimate the influence of situational factors?

A) anecdotal error
B) attribution error
C) the fundamental attribution error
D) the overestimating bias
E) none of the above

Question 7

Category width refers to:

A) the schemas into which the mind places people, events and ideas
B) the certainty in one's thinking style
C) how broadly a person categorizes things
D) the breadth of one's thinking
E) all of the above

Question 8

Broad categorizers:

A) are intolerant of conflicting information
B) tend to perform very well on detailed, analytic processing
C) don't do well on tests that require thinking about how things interrelate
D) allow for very little discrepancy among members of the same category
E) none of the above

Question 9

People who are uncertainty oriented

A) have a need to understand others
B) are open minded
C) evaluate ideas on their own merit
D) integrate new and old ideas
E) all of the above

Question 10

Some of the tenets of ethical, excellent journalism can help offset a disposition toward narrow categorization and certainty orientation.