EFFECTS OF A COMMON LINGUISTIC MISREPRESENTATION ON JUDGMENTS ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HEIGHT AND WEIGHT

Researchers have debated whether laypeople can detect covariation and have tried to identify conditions that might facilitate or retard this ability. Language, especially linguistic representation of variables, seems important to consider since misrepresentation appears to be rel atively common in linguistic exchanges. In the present theory-based ex periment, 16 subjects were asked to make judgments about the relations hip between height and either weight (heavy or light) or bodyfat (fat or thin). Data provided evidence of a powerful illusory association, t hat is, if tall, then thin; if short, then fat, and there was no compe lling evidence to suggest that subjects understood the relationship be tween height and weight.