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Psychological Phenomena

Subadditivity Effect

Probability and Statistical Reasoning Biases

The subadditivity effect is a cognitive bias in judging probability, in which the probability assigned to a whole outcome is judged to be less than the sum of the probabilities assigned to its individual parts.

Facts
Core ClaimSourced to the subject's own account
The subadditivity effect is the tendency to judge the probability of a whole outcome as less than the sum of the probabilities assigned to its individual parts, a violation of the additivity axiom of probability judgment documented by Amos Tversky and Derek Koehler. 1
First Described YearSourced to the subject's own account
1994 1
Classification
Type of PhenomenonSourced to the subject's own account
Cognitive Phenomenon 1
Sources
1. Subadditivity Effect (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia
  • Lead section, first sentence
    The subadditivity effect is the tendency to judge probability of the whole to be less than the probabilities of the parts.
  • Explanations section
    According to Tversky and Koehler (1994) this kind of result is observed consistently.
  • lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
    The subadditivity effect is a cognitive bias in judging probability, in which the probability assigned to a whole outcome is judged to be less than the sum of the probabilities assigned to its individual parts.
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