Heuristics is considered to be a form of a cognitive strategy that is said to be a rule of the thumb when we are reasoning, simplifying or making hypotheses of the things that we have less understanding (Soegaard, 2007). Basically, heuristics is a rule by which the manner of decision making process of individuals is explained as well as on how those individuals give judgments or solve problems when they face a very complex problems or problems having incomplete information.
Biases are considered to be narrow-mindedness in a general or a specific sense that are most of the time having a sense of partiality to one particular viewpoint or ideological standpoint. This can be quoted as a form of favoritism. For instance, we can say that the judgment of the president is bias if he/she give more favor to, say, a senator who happened to by his/her brother. The idea that they have blood relationship, and based from the fact that the president put much premium on his brother, then, we could say that whatever the decision of the president involving his/her brother is a biased one.
There are many types of heuristics and biases that will explain various judgments and decision making processes of different individuals. In this paper, I will just give more attention on the types of heuristics and biases that would explain the verdict of the presented case wherein a boss becomes bias to a certain brand of automobile based from the experience of his brother-in-law. The Heuristics in the Case Based form the given scenario and statement of the boss of the company, I could say that the type of heuristic that he used was the Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristics.
The said heuristic is defined as the human tendency to heavily rely on the “anchor” form which the information was received (Kahnemann, 1997). On the situation that was presented, the boss was insisting that Volvo vehicle is of low quality since his brother-in-law, who happened to own a Volvo before, experienced some problems regarding the quality of the engines of the automobile. The boss generalizes the quality of the automobiles of Volvo with which I believe is not a good judgment.
It can be that the problems of the automobile of his brother-in-law might be a cause of some other factors, like human factors. He did not think that it could be the cause of too much use of his brother in law of the car. Another possible reason could be that his brother in law did not buy that Volvo in an authorized automobile dealer. The too much valuing of the boss to his brother in law experience is an exaggerated one. As a rational individual he should check first for other related cases to back up his claim. Volvo Automobiles
Volvo is one of the world’s premium car producers all over the globe. They continuously innovating their automobiles in order to cope up with the taste and individual fashion of their customers. On of the factors that they consider in building an automobile is the safety of the driver and the passengers of their car. They have done rigorous studies and further improvements in order to prevent accidents and reduce injuries just in case the accident is unavoidable. On their “Volvo Safety Concept” they showcased more than 50 examples of innovative preventive and protective safety systems.
Aside from Airbags and Steel Cages, some of the preventive systems that they use are the Emergency Break Assist, Dynamic Stability and Traction Control and Roll Stability Control. In terms of the quality, Volvo is well known in the precision of their engineering and for their meticulous attitude towards the details of car’s body parts. Each Volvo car undergo into seven layering of different primers, sealers and coating before leaving the company factory. As for the quality of the body parts, Volvo technicians test the quality of their cars by crashing them, then repairing it before crashing it again.
Because of this, the technicians would know which body parts of the car need to be improved and give more attention to provide good quality cars to their customers. Volvo is also well known in providing cars with higher mileage. The current mileage of a Volvo is about nearly two million miles. This only shows how far Volvo can go. Volvo cars are also known for having enough space to accommodate the baggage of the passengers. It flexible seats and brilliant storage solution make it more comfortable to ride a Volvo.
With regards to relaxation while driving a Volvo, one of the car features is the hi-fi Dynaudio and Dolby to create an unbeatable driving soundtrack from DVD’s, CD’s, MP3’s and even iPods. Volvo cars has also Dual Screens Rear Seat Entertainment System that enables two passengers to watch a DVD or play a game together or independently; or they could use the wireless headphones to enjoy their favorite CD’s while the driver is enjoying the most luxurious of soundtracks: silence (“Experience Volvo,” 2007).
Influencing the Boss Based for the information that I will present to the boss, I could use the recognition heuristic. It is a kind of heuristic wherein an individual gives more premiums on the items that he recognizes the most and that items will gain higher criterion value (McCloy, 2004). For instance there are two items, in making a recognition heuristics, the individual can only recognize one of the two items and that item that gains recognition will consider having good qualities over the other.
In the situation given, since I had already conducted research on the cars of Volvo, therefore, there is a tendency for me to put premium on the details of Volvo than with the other car dealers. If I will keep on emphasizing the good qualities of Volvo to the boss, then, there is a higher possibility that his perception over Volvo cars will be change since I presented facts and are not based on second degree sources. With this, my argument will become strong and more persuasive.
REFERENCES
Experience Volvo. (2007). Retrieved July 17, 2007, from http://www. volvocars.us/experience/overview. htm Kahnemann, T. a. (1997). Heuristic [Electronic Version], 1. Retrieved July 17, 2007 from http://www. sfb504. uni-mannheim. de/glossary/heurist. htm. McCloy, C. P. B. a. R. (2004). The recognition heuristic: A work in progress [Electronic Version]. Retrieved July 17, 2007 from http://lubswww2. leeds. ac. uk/cdr/fileadmin/cdr/beamanmccloy04. pdf. Soegaard, M. (2007). Heuristics and heuristic evaluation [Electronic Version], 1. Retrieved July 17, 2007 from http://www. interaction-design. org/encyclopedia/heuristics_and_heuristic_evaluation. html.