DP3 - Heuristics

What are Heuristics?

is a strategy for solving a problem or making a decision that is based on experience with similar types of problems but cannot guarantee a correct outcome.

Common uses for Heuristics

• Reduce mental effort needed to make a decision

• Simplify complex and difficult questions

• Fast and accurate way to arrive at a conclusion

• Help with problem solving

Type of Heuristics

• Availability Heuristic

• Representative Heuristic

• Affect Heuristic

Availability Heuristic

heuristic is a mental shortcut that uses the first thoughts that come to mind when evaluating an issue or deciding what to do.

Representative Heuristic

is a mental shortcut that judges the probability of an event by comparing it to a prototype that we already know.

Affect Heuristic

•is a mental shortcut based on a person’s current emotional state.

Availability Heuristic - Positive Influence

It saves time and effort in terms of recalling similar situations and analyzing them

Availability Heuristic - Negative Influence

It tends to overestimate the likelihood of recent events occuring

Representativeness Heuristic - Positive Influence

It allows us to understand a new object or event by comparing its characteristics to those we have already established for other objects and events

Representativeness Heuristic - Negative Influence

We often overestimate the similarity between the two things we are comparing, leading to mistakes in our decision-making.

Affect Heuristic - Positive Influence

It might encourage us to take bigger risks than we usually would if we are in a positive mood.

Affect Heuristic - Negative Influence

If we are in a negative mood, then the heuristic tends to keep us there because we won’t risk doing new things, which limits our ability to learn from new and challenging situations

Availability Heuristic - continued

•Whatever is recalled first must be the most important thought.

•This means our decisions or ideas draw on the most recent information, experience or news.

•Although it can help make decisions quickly, it might also lead to errors.

Affect Heuristic - continued

•Essentially, your affect (emotional response) plays a role in your decisions and behaviour.

•Emotions dictate how a person or situation are thought about, indicating the influence of this heuristic.

Representative Heuristic - continued

•A prototype in this context is what we think is the most relevant or typical example of a specific event or object.

•Allows us to quickly determine what something is, based on its similarity to a prototype.

•However, a flaw of the representative heuristic is that people overestimate its accuracy in predicting what category something fits into or the probability of an event.

•It simply assesses the similarity of things, and if we rely on it to make judgements, then we could make errors because just because something is similar, it does not mean it is more likely to be that thing.