Bruno is asked to estimate which California city occupies a greater area: San Francisco or San Jose. "San Francisco is a big city," he muses, "whereas San Jose is out in the suburbs. San Francisco must be bigger." In actuality, San Francisco occupies about 48 square miles, compared to San Jose’s 180 square miles. Bruno was mislead because he relied on .
a) a heuristic
b) an algorithm
c) System 2 thinking
d) hegemony

A. a heuristic

Explanation: Heuristics can be explained as a quick, flexible method employed in problem-solving. Heuristics usually employs a method which could be termed self-discovery as it is a way of getting an answer or solving a problem usually from currently available mental fact within a short time. Results or conclusions made from heuristic approach are not guaranteed to be optimal or perfect but could be enough to provide a verdict required for the short term. Heuristic could be verdicts or conclusions based on intuition, prediction or logical reasoning.

In the scenario above, Bruno attempts to make conclusion using the available mental information available at that current time to make a quick decision which ended up to be incorrect.