Question

For the following exercise, people generally choose spiritual healer as the answer. Why do they choose this answer and what kind of heuristics they use when choosing the answer.  

“Sarah loves to listen to New Age music and faithfully reads her horoscope each day. In her spare time, she enjoys aromatherapy and attending a local spirituality group. What do you think is Sarah’s occupation: Choose one:

School teacher

Spiritual healer

Answer 1

After reading the description of the question mentioned above, What one can conclude that Sarah is a spiritual healer based on representativeness. She is more likely to be a spiritual healer than a school teacher. The occupation of a school teacher is far more common than a spiritual healer. Listening to music and reading horoscope may be a common thing between a teacher and a spiritual healer but enjoying aromatherapy and attending spirituality maybe not followed by a teacher. It must be noted that aromatherapy is a holistic healing treatment usually practiced by spiritual healers. Here, Sarah's mental shortcuts of doing things indicate the representativeness heuristic.