Free PMP® Exam Sample Question 03 (Cognitive Bias)

Do you have any cognitive biases? This free Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam question is all about them.

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Video Transcript

Hi there! I'm Cornelius Fichtner. I am the creator of The Project Management PrepCast™ and the PM Exam Simulator™ and I have a Free Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam Sample Question for you. You're at the right place here.

Question

Here's the question:

In an interview for the position of a project manager, John could answer all the technical questions. The interviewer therefore assumed that since he had good technical knowledge that he would also prove to be a good manager. Based on this assumption, John was hired for the position. So which of the following theories is being used by the interviewer here?

Answers

Is it A, Vroom's expectancy theory?
Is it B, McGregor's Theory of X and Y?
Or it is Herzberg's Theory?
Or is this all about the Halo Effect?

Hint

In case you are in need of a tip, well this theory that we are looking for is related to a cognitive bias.

Okay, let's take a look at everything on one page here. Here is the question with the 4 answers. On the real exam, you have now 1.2 minutes to answer it and we're going to give you 30 seconds. See you in just a bit.

[30 seconds count]

And we're back! And you probably also knew that the answer to this question is the Halo Effect. Yes, the behavior that we described is an illustration of the halo effect.

The halo effect best explained with all the celebrities that are advertising. I mean why is George Clooney advertising for a Swiss watch maker? Well because we believe that George Clooney, he is a good looking man. Therefore, he probably knows all about nice Swiss watches. That's the halo effect, refers to a cognitive bias. We think that our perception of one particular trait automatically also translates into another trait.

And that's it for this particular free PMP® Exam question!

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Until next time.