Availability heuristic examples... I've used school shooting deaths using data from this site (scroll down to the second table): http://www.schoolsecurity.org/trends/school_violence.html
My three current favorites. 1. Firearms deaths in the U.S. How many? (Much fewer that what people think.) And then what percentage were homicides (1/3 for my county), suicides (2/3 for my county), and accidents (negligible for my county). You should be able to get this information from your coroner's office. I would be happy to send you the data for the Seattle metropolitan area. 2. In the U.S., between 1997 and 2002, "2335 children. died in alcohol-related [automobile] crashes." How many were riding in the same vehicle with the drinking/drunk driver? I'll let you guess on this one, then you can look up the answer here: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5304a2.htm 3. And on oldie but a goodie, "In the U.S., with the charge of felony, how often is the plea of insanity entered?" Again, much less than what people think. Here's one source: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2699/is_0005/ai_2699000509/pg_1 Btw, this is another place where I have students use clickers to share their answers. It's a pretty powerful demonstration when the vast majority of students are thinking the same -- wrong -- thing. -- Sue Frantz Highline Community College Psychology Des Moines, WA 206.878.3710 x3404 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/ -- APA Division 2: Society for the Teaching of Psychology http://teachpsych.org/ Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology Associate Director Project Syllabus http://teachpsych.org/otrp/syllabi/syllabi.php --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
