Heuristics, Biases, and the Development of Conflict Detection during Reasoning

Although human reasoning is often biased by intuitive heuristics, recent studies on conflict detection during thinking suggest that adult reasoners detect the biased nature of their judgments. Despite their illogical response, adults demonstrate a remarkable sensitivity to possible conflict between their heuristic judgment and logical or probabilistic norms. In this chapter I review emerging work on the development of this critical conflict or bias sensitivity. Taken together, the available evidence suggest that a lack of heuristic bias detection might be a key factor that distinguishes older and younger reasoners.