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Describe the four most common mental shortcuts that people use and provide an example of each.
On Jul 10, 2024
The four most common mental shortcuts that people use are the representativeness heuristic, the availability heuristic, the simulation heuristic, and the anchoring and adjustment heuristic.
The representativeness heuristic refers to the tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by the extent to which it "resembles" the typical case. For example, in a series of 10 coin tosses, most people judge the series HHTTHTHTTH to be more likely than the series HHHHHHHHHH (where H is heads and T is tails), even though both are equally likely.
The availability heuristic refers to the tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by the ease with which relevant instances come to mind. For example, people overestimate the frequency of dramatic deaths (e.g., dying in an airplane crash)and underestimate the frequency of less dramatic deaths (e.g., dying from lung cancer).
The simulation heuristic refers to the tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by the ease with which you can imagine (or mentally simulate)an event. For example, in the Olympics, bronze medalists appear to be happier than silver medalists because it is easier for a silver medalist to imagine being a gold medalist.
The anchoring and adjustment heuristic refers to the tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by using a starting point (called an anchor)and then making adjustments up and down from this starting point. For example, if one party in a negotiation starts by suggesting a price or condition, then the other party is likely to base its counteroffer on this anchor.