Editing Representativeness heuristic (section)

===Similarity===
[[File:Generalization_process_using_trees.svg|alt=Diagram|right|thumb|243x243px|Snap judgement of whether novel object fits an existing category]]
When judging the representativeness of a new stimulus/event, people usually pay attention to the degree of similarity between the stimulus/event and a standard/process.<ref name="kt72" /> It is also important that those features be salient.<ref name="kt72" /> Nilsson, Juslin, and Olsson (2008) found this to be influenced by the exemplar account of memory (concrete examples of a category are stored in memory) so that new instances were classified as representative if highly similar to a category as well as if frequently encountered.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Nilsson|first1=Håkan|last2=Juslin|first2=Peter|last3=Olsson|first3=Henrik|title=Exemplars in the mist: The cognitive substrate of the representativeness heuristic|journal=[[Scandinavian Journal of Psychology]]|volume=49|issue=3|year=2008|pages=201–212|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9450.2008.00646.x|pmid=18419587}}</ref>
Several examples of similarity have been described in the representativeness heuristic literature. This research has focused on medical beliefs. <ref name="GS96" /> People often believe that medical symptoms should resemble their causes or treatments. For example, people have long believed that [[Ulcer (dermatology)|ulcers]] were caused by stress, due to the representativeness heuristic, when in fact [[bacteria]] cause ulcers.<ref name="GS96" /> In a similar line of thinking, in some alternative medicine beliefs patients have been encouraged to eat [[Offal|organ meat]] that corresponds to their medical disorder. Use of the representativeness heuristic can be seen in even simpler beliefs, such as the belief that eating fatty foods makes one fat.<ref name="GS96" /> Even physicians may be swayed by the representativeness heuristic when judging [[Similarity (psychology)|similarity]], in diagnoses, for example.<ref name="Garb">{{cite journal|last1=Garb|first1=Howard N.|title=The representativeness and past-behavior heuristics in clinical judgment|journal=Professional Psychology: Research and Practice|volume=27|issue=3|year=1996|pages=272–277|doi=10.1037/0735-7028.27.3.272}}</ref> The researcher found that clinicians use the representativeness heuristic in making diagnoses by judging how similar patients are to the stereotypical or prototypical patient with that disorder.<ref name="Garb" />