Availability heuristic
 

 

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 – can lead to incorrect judgements.

 

The ease with which information can be remembered is related to several factors, for example, the strength of verbal associative connexions between events may influence how well one can bring the co-occurrence of those events to mind.

 

 

Availability bias
Any condition where the
availability heuristic produces systematic errors in thinking or information processingtypically 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.

 
 
 
 
Labels: availability heuristic, availability bias, definition: ‘availability heuristic’, definition: ‘availability bias’, reliance upon readily available knowledge
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