Problem Solving, Decision-Making, and Biases (6B) Practice Test

A startup’s product team must decide whether to continue investing in a feature that has not improved user retention. They have already spent $250,000 and 6 months of development time. A new analysis projects that, even if completed, the feature is unlikely to increase retention beyond 1%, while an alternative project could plausibly yield a 5% increase with similar future costs. During discussion, several team members argue, “We’ve put too much into this to stop now,” and recommend continuing primarily because of the prior investment. Which decision is most likely given the influence of the sunk cost fallacy?

A clinic is testing whether clinicians show availability bias when estimating disease likelihood. Over one week, clinicians read two brief case summaries before estimating the probability of Disease X. Case A describes a dramatic, memorable presentation of Disease X that is rare; Case B describes a common presentation of a different disease with similar symptoms. Both cases include base-rate information: Disease X prevalence is 1% in the clinic population. After reading Case A, clinicians estimate Disease X probability at 25% for a new patient with similar symptoms. Based on the vignette, how might availability bias influence the decision?