Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsHow It WorksExamplesCausesAvailability vs. RepresentativenessEffects on DecisionsHow to Avoid It
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
How It Works
Examples
Causes
Availability vs. Representativeness
Effects on Decisions
How to Avoid It
Close
The availability heuristic is a type of mental shortcut that involves estimating the probability or risk of something based on how easily examples come to mind. If we can think of many examples, then we assume it happens frequently.
Consider the following example of the availability heuristic: Which job do you think is more dangerous—being a police officer or a logger? While high-profile police shootings might lead you to think that cops have the most hazardous job, statistics show that loggers are likelier to die on the job than cops.
When making this type of judgment about relative risk or danger, our brains rely on several strategies to make quick decisions. The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that helps you make fast, but sometimes incorrect, assessments.
There are all kinds of mental shortcuts, but a common one involves relying on information that comes to mind quickly.This is known as “availability.” If you can quickly think of multiple examples of something happening—such as police shootings or airplane crashes—you will believe it is more common.
The availability heuristic, sometimes known as the availability bias, is a type ofcognitive biasthat can lead to systematic errors in thinking.
How the Availability Heuristic Works
When you are trying to make a decision, a number of related events or situations might immediately spring to the forefront of your thoughts. As a result, you might judge that those events are more frequent or probable than others. You give greater credence to this information and tend to overestimate the probability and likelihood of similar things happening in the future.
For example, after seeing several news reports about car thefts, you mightmake a judgmentthat vehicle theft is much more common than it really is in your area. This type of availability heuristic can be helpful and important indecision-making. When faced with a choice, we often lack the time or resources to investigate in greater depth.
Faced with the need for an immediate decision, the availability heuristic allows people to quickly arrive at a conclusion.
How It Can Be Helpful
This can be helpful when you are trying to make a decision or judgment about the world around you. For example, would you say that there are more words in the English language that begin with the lettertor with the letterk?
Press Play for Advice On How to Make Wise Decisions
Examples of the Availability Heuristic
Here are a few scenarios where this could play out in your day-to-day life.
In another example, researchers have found that people who are more easily able to recall seeing antidepressant advertising were also more likely to give high estimates about theprevalence of depression.
RecapThe availability heuristic often makes people overestimate the likelihood of relatively uncommon events. This can affect people’s decisions and may even take a toll on their well-being if it leads to distress and worry.
Recap
The availability heuristic often makes people overestimate the likelihood of relatively uncommon events. This can affect people’s decisions and may even take a toll on their well-being if it leads to distress and worry.
What Causes the Availability Heuristic
The availability heuristic stems from how the brain works. Because our attention and information-processing power is limited, we have to rely on shortcuts to help make understanding the world a little faster and easier.
The trade-off for this ability to make snap judgments is that sometimes our assessments and decisions are inaccurate.
The problem is that certain events tend to stand out in our minds more than others, leading to biased thinking and inaccurate choices.
Excessive media coverage can cause this, but sometimes, the novelty or drama surrounding an event can cause it to become more available in your memory. Because the event is so unusual, it takes on greater significance, which leads you to incorrectly assume that the event is much more common than it is.
Why Some Information Is More AvailableCertain information might be more readily available in your mind because it’s:Something you recently learnedAn event that had a significant impact on youSomething that you think about frequentlyMore salient or easier to rememberBecause this information is easier to retrieve from memory, it is more readily accessible when we seek examples to help us estimate the risk or probability of something happening.
Why Some Information Is More Available
Certain information might be more readily available in your mind because it’s:Something you recently learnedAn event that had a significant impact on youSomething that you think about frequentlyMore salient or easier to rememberBecause this information is easier to retrieve from memory, it is more readily accessible when we seek examples to help us estimate the risk or probability of something happening.
Certain information might be more readily available in your mind because it’s:
Because this information is easier to retrieve from memory, it is more readily accessible when we seek examples to help us estimate the risk or probability of something happening.
Availability Heuristic vs. Representativeness Heuristic
The brain uses all types of mental shortcuts, and some of them have a few things in common and may sometimes be confused with one another. The availability heuristic, for example, is sometimes confused with what is known as the representativeness heuristic.
The representativeness heuristic is a shortcut in which we estimate the probability of an effect based on how well the current example matches an example we already have in mind. For example, we might base our impressions of a person in a professional role based on the representation of that role we already have in our mind.
So while representativeness relies on comparing an event to our existing expections, availability relies on basing these estimates on how readily we can call similar events to mind.
Availability Heuristic and Incorrect Decisions
In other words, things that come to mind more easily are believed to be far more common and accurate reflections of the real world.
Common Pitfalls of Availability Heuristic
Like otherheuristics, the availability heuristic can be useful at times. However, it can lead to problems and errors. Reports of child abductions, airplane accidents, and train derailments often lead people to believe that such events are much more typical than they truly are.
For example, after seeing a movie about a nuclear disaster, you might become convinced that a nuclear war or accident is highly likely. After witnessing a car overturned on the side of the road, you might believe that your own likelihood of getting in an accident is very high.
Plus, the longer you stay preoccupied with the event, the more available it will be in your mind, and the more probable you will believe it to be.
Research has shown that the availability bias can contribute to medical misdiagnoses. Physicians might overestimate the likelihood that a person has a specific condition, contributing to diagnostic errors.
How to Avoid the Availability Heuristic
The availability heuristic is an inherent part of how the brain works. It tends to occur automatically without any effort. While being more aware of this heuristic may help you better see how it might affect your choices, experts suggest that awareness of mental biases isn’t enough to overcome them.
While there’s no way to prevent it from happening, there are strategies that you can use to help make more informed decisions.
A Word From Verywell
Heuristics play a vital role in how we make decisions and act upon information in the world around us. The availability heuristic can be a helpful tool, but it is also important to remember that it can sometimes lead to incorrect assessments.
Just because something looms large in your memory does not necessarily mean it is more common, so incorporating other tools andstrategiesinto your decision-making process can help you make more accurate choices.
6 Sources
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Bureau of Labor Statistics.National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2021.
Berthet V, de Gardelle V.The heuristics-and-biases inventory: An open-source tool to explore individual differences in rationality.Front Psychol. 2023;14:1145246. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1145246
An S.Antidepressant direct-to-consumer advertising and social perception of the prevalence of depression: application of the availability heuristic.Health Commun. 2008;23(6):499-505. doi:10.1080/10410230802342127
Tversky A, Kahneman D.Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability.Cognitive Psychology. 1973;5(2):207-232. doi:10.1016/0010-0285(73)90033-9
PBS News Hour.Making people aware of their implicit biases doesn’t usually change minds. But here’s what does work.
Meet Our Review Board
Share Feedback
Was this page helpful?Thanks for your feedback!What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit
Was this page helpful?
Thanks for your feedback!
What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit
What is your feedback?
