Heuristics
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Copied on 7/24/2021
Heuristics
Reviewed by Psychology Today Staff
A heuristic is a mental shortcut that allows an individual to make a decision, pass judgment, or solve a problem quickly and with minimal mental effort. While heuristics can reduce the burden of decision-making and free up limited cognitive resources, they can also be costly when they lead individuals to miss critical information or act on unjust biases.
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What Is a Heuristic?
As humans move throughout the world, they must process large amounts of information and make many choices with limited amounts of time. When information is missing, or an immediate decision is necessary, heuristics act as “rules of thumb” that guide behavior down the most efficient pathway.
Heuristics are not unique to humans; animals use heuristics that, though less complex, also serve to simplify decision-making and reduce cognitive load.
Do heuristics make us more successful?
Generally, yes. Navigating day-to-day life requires everyone to make countless small decisions within a limited timeframe. Heuristics can help individuals save time and mental energy, freeing up cognitive resources for more complex planning and problem-solving endeavors.
Why do we use heuristics?
The human brain and all its processes—including heuristics—developed over millions of years of evolution. Since mental shortcuts save both cognitive energy and time, they likely provided an advantage to those who relied on them.
Are evolved heuristics useful in modern life?
Heuristics that were helpful to early humans may not be universally beneficial today. The familiarity heuristic, for example—in which the familiar is preferred over the unknown—could steer early humans toward foods or people that were safe, but may trigger anxiety or unfair biases in modern times.
Different Kinds of Heuristics
The study of heuristics was developed by renowned psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Starting in the 1970s, Kahneman and Tversky identified several different kinds of heuristics, most notably the availability heuristic and the anchoring heuristic.
Since then, researchers have continued their work and identified many different kinds of heuristics, including:
Familiarity heuristic
Fundamental attribution error
Representativeness heuristic
Satisficing
What is the anchoring heuristic?
The anchoring heuristic, or anchoring bias, occurs when someone relies more heavily on the first piece of information learned when making a choice, even if it's not the most relevant. In such cases, anchoring is likely to steer individuals wrong.
What is the availability heuristic?
The availability heuristic describes the mental shortcut in which someone estimates whether something is likely to occur based on how readily examples come to mind. People tend to overestimate the probability of plane crashes, homicides, and shark attacks, for instance, because examples of such events are easily remembered.
What is the representativeness heuristic?
People who make use of the representativeness heuristic categorize objects (or other people) based on how similar they are to known entities—assuming someone described as "quiet" is more likely to be a librarian than a politician, for instance.
What is satisficing?
Satisficing is a decision-making strategy in which the first option that satisfies certain criteria is selected, even if other, better options may exist.
When Heuristics Are Wrong
Heuristics, while useful, are imperfect; if relied on too heavily, they can result in incorrect judgments or cognitive biases. Some are more likely to steer people wrong than others.
Assuming, for example, that child abductions are common because they’re frequently reported on the news—an example of the availability heuristic—may trigger unnecessary fear or overprotective parenting practices. Understanding commonly unhelpful heuristics, and identifying situations where they could affect behavior, may help individuals avoid such mental pitfalls.
What is the fundamental attribution error?
Sometimes called the attribution effect or correspondence bias, the term describes a tendency to attribute others’ behavior primarily to internal factors—like personality or character—while attributing one’s own behavior more to external or situational factors.
What is an example of the fundamental attribution error?
If one person steps on the foot of another in a crowded elevator, the victim may attribute it to carelessness. If, on the other hand, they themselves step on another’s foot, they may be more likely to attribute the mistake to being jostled by someone else.
How can I make better decisions?
Listen to your gut, but don’t rely on it. Think through major problems methodically—by making a list of pros and cons, for instance, or consulting with people you trust. Make extra time to think through tasks where snap decisions could cause significant problems, such as catching an important flight.
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How Availability Bias Messes Up Your Relationships
Availability bias can fool us into putting value on the wrong things.
Availability bias, or the availability heuristic, tells us that the thing we can recall the quickest during an argument or debate, or the memory that had the most impact on us emotionally, has the most importance. As you can imagine, this can trip us up in our relationships.
We tend to stick with the idea we have at the forefront of our minds because it's usually safer to stick with what we know, and researching other points of view takes time. And if something has been observed by us, instead of just read about, we tend to overestimate its importance. And of course, a memory with a lot of emotion tied to it — positive or negative — tends to pop up in our minds first.
Availability bias tells you that if a previous partner cheated on you, and those painful memories are fresh in your mind, you are more likely to assume that your current partner will cheat on you. This applies even if your current partner has not shown any signs of cheating.
If something happened recently or had a lot of emotional value to us, it is more likely to cloud our judgment. Availability bias makes us not so good at assessing risk. We tend to over- and underestimate risk based on what has happened to us recently, or what has stuck with us.
For example, you meet someone to whom you are attracted. Your most emotionally-charged memory of someone similar to him or her brings a wave of oxytocin, the feel-good hormone. You are more likely to get involved with this new person because you have positive memories with someone similar to him or her. This is availability bias. It can lead you to get involved in relationships that aren't the most healthy for you.
If you are arguing with your partner and you bring up something he or she did five years ago that angered you, you may be falling prey to availability bias. Your brain thinks that event was so impactful that you're bringing it up when it has nothing to do with your current argument. Your brain sort of twists that event to make that information fit into the current scenario. And bringing up past events when you are in an argument with a partner rarely solves any issues.
When I'm working with couples, I two have "ground rules" for arguments: 1. No name-calling. 2. No bringing up of past events. We wouldn't bring up our partners' past behaviors if they didn't bother us — and this is where availability bias comes into play. Because this past behavior bothers you, your brain figures that it is essential to bring it up as an example of why your partner is "wrong."
Availability bias can also lure you into believing that you put in way more work into the relationship than your partner. If one of your most recent memories is that you were washing the dishes because your partner decided to skip it and watch TV instead, you may feel that you are putting forth all the effort. Availability bias blocks out the times that you didn't feel up to doing your household tasks and your partner did them for you. You just remember the most recent event.
The Solution
Realize that you are putting a lot more weight on something than it deserves because it recently happened or because it bothered you. Come up with alternatives to the first thing that pops into your mind. For example, the most recent and emotionally-charged memory you have is your partner telling you they weren't going to get out of bed to check on the baby. You start arguing with your partner about sharing nighttime feedings. Your partner tells you that he or she has been getting up for late-night feedings. The only thing that comes to mind is the last time there was a late-night feeding, and you feel your partner let you down. Hold on a second and do a quick review of other nighttime feedings in the last month: Chances are, your partner has helped out more than you originally thought.
Whenever the first thought comes to mind, consider that it may not be representative of what is happening or representative of what solutions might work best. And if availability bias has clouded how you treat your partner, consider discussing it with him or her.
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