What is Availability Heuristic (with Examples)

Heuristics is an important concept in behavioral economics and can be defined as a shortcut for solving a problem or answering a question based on already available information. This can also be considered an “educated guess” based on available information or a rule of thumb that guides our decisions. 

Although heuristics are of several types, this study focuses on the availability heuristic, which describes how easily available related information is in our mind and depends on experiences and memories regarding the subject. The availability heuristic is also called availability bias because it indirectly affects our decision-making.

For example, when shopping for laundry detergents, you may choose Tide over other brands because it comes to mind first and faster than any other brand. This decision is based on the availability heuristic. However, this shortcut to decision-making is not always reliable because it may lead to judgement errors. 

This article delves further into the concept and applications of the availability heuristic and offers tips to overcome it and avoid errors in decision-making. 

What is availability heuristic? 

The availability heuristic is a cognitive bias in which you make a decision based on an example, information, or recent experience that is readily available to you, even though it may not be the best example to inform your decision (Tversky & Kahneman, 1973).[1], [2] 

According to the APA dictionary of psychology, [3] availability heuristic is a common strategy for making judgements about the likelihood of occurrence of an event in which the judgements are based on memories of similar events. The more easily available the information, the more relevant and probable it is judged to be. This assumption, however, could lead to judgement errors because if information is easily available in the memory, for example, about well-publicized events such as plane crashes, people would tend to believe these events to be more probable than they actually are.  

Simply put, the availability heuristic describes our tendency to use information that comes to mind quickly when making decisions about future events. Individual memorable moments may have a significant influence on our decisions when compared to less memorable ones. These memorable moments can be either positive or negative, affecting our judgement accordingly.  

What is a heuristic in psychology? 

Human beings need to make several decisions daily, however small or relevant. For this, they must process large amounts of information and make quick decisions. When information is missing, or when immediate answers are required, heuristics act as a rule of thumb to guide behavior. A heuristic, in cognitive psychology, is a process of intuitive judgement that helps generate quick decisions, solutions, or predictions. It is a mental shortcut that can allow you to decide, judge, or solve a problem with minimal effort.

The study of heuristics was developed by psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky in 1973. Starting with their work, researchers have now identified different kinds of heuristics, such as anchoring, familiarity, representativeness, etc [2], [4]

Heuristics reduce the complexity of a decision, problem, or question by considering only easily available information. 

Why does availability heuristic occur? 

The availability heuristic occurs because some memories, events, or facts are spontaneously recalled by our minds, whereas others may require effort to retrieve.[2] These retrieved memories are easily remembered because of several reasons—they are recent, happen frequently, have created a lasting impression, or receive constant media coverage.  

Our brains tend to minimize the effort necessary to complete routine tasks. During decision-making, certain memories and knowledge are readily recalled to replace the effort-intensive task of calculating from data. Some memories leave a lasting impression because they would have affected us emotionally.  

How availability heuristic works 

Our mind makes decisions based on the information that immediately comes to mind at the mention of a subject. We assume that since we remembered this specific memory or fact so quickly, it must be important and accordingly give it more weight. Consequently, based on this bias we may overestimate the likelihood of similar future events and may make an incorrect decision. For example, lawyers may use the availability heuristic to influence the jury indirectly by showing graphic evidence. Such photos increase the probability of the jurors recollecting it and since the image is readily available in their mind it will affect their decision. 

Availability heuristic examples 

Here are a few real-world scenarios of the availability heuristic:1 

1. Politics: Politicians use availability bias by overemphasizing specific issues during every speech or meeting, indirectly influencing people to believe that these issues are more frequent and relevant than they actually may be. 
2. Advertising: Billboard advertising is used by many companies to increase sales. Displaying billboards at strategic places will influence buyers when shopping for a similar product because that image comes to mind easily and quickly.
3. Social interactions: When meeting people for the first time, any singular incident during the interaction can lead to an availability bias. For instance, if you overhear someone being rude, you may assume that the person is by nature rude to everyone, a possibly incorrect assumption.
4. Corporate: Between two employees who are equally capable and due for a promotion, if one of them committed an error however long back, people will remember that specific incident, which may cloud their judgement. Consider a company deciding to invest in a new technology. If a leader recalls a major failure of a similar technology implementation from the past, they might hesitate to invest. This decision based on negative experiences could hinder progress and innovation.
5. Medicine: Availability bias may lead to medical misdiagnosis. For example, based on a patient’s symptoms, there was a high probability of having either the more widespread COVID-19 or pneumonia. Repeated tests and timely diagnosis helped correctly identify the ailment as pneumonia. 

Availability heuristic vs representativeness heuristic 

The representativeness heuristic is another cognitive shortcut used in decision-making, wherein the likelihood of an event is estimated by the extent to which it resembles a sample event. That is, the more similar an event is to our preconceived idea of another event, the more likely it is to occur. On the other hand, the more dissimilar an event is from our preconceived idea, the less likely it is.[1] 

Here are some differences between the two types of heuristics.[5]

How to avoid the availability heuristic 

Here are a few ways to overcome or avoid the availability heuristic during decision-making: [6]

1. Increasing awareness and education: Understanding the concept of availability heuristic is the first step toward mitigating its effects. Proper training can help us recognize specific instances when we rely on this heuristic and this can help us consciously avoid taking shortcuts by looking for specific data.
2. Diversifying sources of information: Consulting various sources of information can reduce our tendency to rely on easily available data. Newspapers and other media sources help shape the public’s views; however, biased reporting may also have a negative effect, so consulting different sources will provide accurate results.
3. Thinking critically and skeptically: Adopting a critical thinking attitude can help us assess the validity and relevance of the easily available information. Questions such as, “Why do I think this way? and “What evidence supports this view?” can prevent us from making impulsive decisions.
4. Data-driven decision-making: Decisions should be based on statistical data and empirical evidence rather than on personal experiences. This practice can help reduce our unintentional use of the availability heuristic.
5. Consulting and collaborating: Interactions with our peers can provide different perspectives helping us learn new information, which can help in practicing critical thinking. This process is called red teaming, which involves combining diverse experiences and knowledge to counteract the bias introduced by the availability heuristic and other such shortcuts. 

Thus, awareness of the availability heuristic, seeking different perspectives and sources for our facts, and encouraging critical thinking can help reduce our dependence on readily available information.  

Key Takeaways  

1. Availability heuristic or availability bias is a type of cognitive bias in which people make decisions about a future event based on easily available information that comes to mind quickly.
2. This readily available information may be related to our personal memories or experiences with specific subjects, whether positive or negative. 
3. This type of bias prevents us from considering a situation objectively and using data from different credible sources, eventually leading to judgement errors.
4. There are a few ways to reduce or avoid our reliance on the availability heuristic—education about the availability heuristic and understanding situations in which we are more prone to using it, ensuring data-driven decision-making, thinking critically, and collaborating with peers. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Q1. How does the availability heuristic affect our decision-making? [6]

A1. The dependence on easily available information can affect our decision-making by not allowing us to think critically and understanding the situation from different perspectives. Availability heuristic can affect our decisions in the following ways: 

• Misjudging risk and probability: This heuristic can cause people to misjudge the likelihood of events because they consider how easily examples come to mind rather than depending on data. This can lead to overestimating or underestimating risks. 

• Bias in information gathering: When relying on the availability heuristic, individuals may seek information that confirms their existing beliefs, leading to a biased information-gathering process. 

• Impaired decision-making in uncertain conditions: In situations of uncertainty, the availability heuristic can lead to decisions based on individual experiences rather than a complete analysis of relevant data. This can be a challenge in complex decision-making environments like finance, healthcare, and policymaking. 

Q2. In what situations does the availability heuristic work well? 

A2. The availability heuristic allows you to assess risk and make decisions quickly and easily. Sometimes you may not have the time or resources to gather enough information for a complete evaluation. The availability heuristic helps draw conclusions fast, so that you can quickly move on to the next tasks. It simplifies complex decisions so you can take timely action although you may need to use your discretion to act on these decisions.  

By simplifying the decision process, the availability heuristic helps reduce stress by limiting the number of things for our mind to evaluate.  

Q3. Are there other types of heuristics? 

A3. Yes, other than availability and representativeness heuristics discussed earlier, the other types of heuristics are described below.2 

• Anchoring and adjustment: This cognitive bias causes us to rely significantly on the first information we receive about a subject. This information is unintentionally set as a reference point and all information we receive later is then judged based on this anchor. This bias can affect our judgement by preventing us from viewing all information objectively. For instance, while buying a product, we check its price first and this becomes our anchor. If we see a similar object and find its price to be lower than that of the first one, we consider it cheaper although it may not be. In this case, the first product is our anchor so anything less than that will feel like a good deal and affect our judgement.
• Familiarity: This cognitive bias explains that we all tend to favor the familiar over the unfamiliar because the latter may involve risks. Familiarity is equated with safety, which is why we are sometimes apprehensive about new places, people, things, etc. 
• Affect: This heuristic describes how we make decisions by relying on our emotions rather than tangible data or logic. Although this helps us reach conclusions quickly, it can also affect our judgement. This bias usually becomes active during situations of high time pressure. For example, public health campaigns use the affect heuristic in the form of fear appeals to encourage viewers to practice healthy behavior. They do so by using images of damaged lungs or by inscribing lung cancer-related data on cigarette boxes, aimed at instilling fear in consumers.
• Scarcity: This bias makes us give higher value to products that appear difficult to obtain and a lower value to those that are easily available, irrespective of the actual value. For example, if we see a product in short supply in a grocery store, we unintentionally give it a higher value than other products and buy it immediately, assuming that if it is in short supply, it will become unavailable soon.
• Trial and error: This heuristic involves solving a problem that could have several possible solutions by attempting each possible solution until the correct one is obtained. 

To summarize, heuristics are mental shortcuts used by people to make quick decisions. These shortcuts can be used intentionally or unintentionally and may lead to a biased judgement about an event or product. Availability heuristic is one such type of heuristic that describes how we use the most readily available information that comes to mind to make quick decisions, which may or may not be beneficial.  

We hope this article will help you understand how to recognize the availability heuristic so that you could use this knowledge to avoid crucial judgement errors.  

REFERENCES 

1. Availability heuristic and decision making. SimplyPsychology. Accessed September 14, 2024. https://www.simplypsychology.org/availability-heuristic.html 
2. Why do we tend to think that things that happened recently are more likely to happen again. The Decision Lab website. Accessed September 15, 2024. https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/availability-heuristic 
3. Availability heuristic. APA Dictionary of Psychology. American Psychological Association. Accessed September 14, 2024. https://dictionary.apa.org/availability-heuristic 
4. Heuristics. Psychology Today. Accessed September 16, 2024. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/heuristics 
5. Difference between availability heuristic and representative heuristic. Differencebetween.net. Accessed September 16, 2024. http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/difference-between-availability-heuristic-and-representative-heuristic/ 
6. Hoffman, B. Availability heuristic: What it is and how to overcome it. Forbes. Published April 6, 2024. Accessed September 16, 2024. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brycehoffman/2024/04/06/availability-heuristic-what-it-is-and-how-to-overcome-it/ 

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