Heuristics

Heuristics are basically simple rules for making complex decisions or making inferences in a quick and seemingly effortless way. Some may call it judgemental shortcuts.

Although heuristics do help us to come to decisions within a shorter time, they are also known to create biases in our judgement.

There are two known types of heuristics (available and representative) which people tend to use in everyday life. In this blog I would like to discuss about availability heuristics.

Available refers to how people base their judgements on information that are readily accessible to them. As such information which are easier to bring to the mind are viewed as important, they create an extensive impact on people's subsequent judgements. But on certain occasions making judgements based on available heuristics may lead to some errors.

Based on this principle, many people still think more people die from shark attacks than mosquito-related diseases. The fact is more people die from mosquito-related diseases. The sad part is that our media tends to magnify shark-attacked victims more than those dying of mosquito-related diseases. As a result, people killed by sharks are brought to our minds more easily and as such has a stronger impact on our judgements.

Can you think of any other available heuristics which has created a positive impact?