Question

You have a very fragile glass vase that you need to ship to your mother for Mother's Day but you have no packing materials. All you have is the popcorn that you are eating. You don't see that you can use the popcorn as packing material. This is best explained by __________.

functional fixedness
salience
confirmation bias
availability bias.

Answer 1

This is best explained by **functional fixedness**. Functional fixedness is a cognitive bias that limits a person’s ability to use an object only in the way it is traditionally used. In this scenario, you are unable to see the potential of using popcorn as packing material because you are fixated on its common use as a snack.