Availability heuristic A reliance by a decision-makerupon r...

2006-11-27T04:50:58.857Z

Availability heuristic

A reliance by a decision-maker upon readily available knowledge in preference to other alternatives or procedures, and concerns the ease with which relevant instances of an event, phenomenon, category, etc., come to mind and are used as a gauge in making judgements about that event, phenomenon, or category, for example, its frequency.

†Availability bias
Any condition where the availability heuristic produces systematic errors in thinking or information processing, typically due to vivid, though infrequent or unusual events.

When making estimates of the frequency or likelihood of an event, strategies for moderating this bias include refusing to take the ease or speed with which relevant examples come to mind as a good indication of the trustworthiness of estimates, while consciously seeking and utilizing base rate information or other pertinent statistical information in reaching such judgements. Anecdotal evidence, personal testimonies, and dramatic case studies should be treated with a great deal of caution. Any inclination to overgeneralize from a small selection of (particularly unusual or extreme) instances and events – and especially anything connected with the behaviour of human beings – should be resisted.

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