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Understanding Psychology Chapter 1 Learn with flashcards, games, and more — for free.
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- Overview
- The History and Origins of Heuristics
- How Heuristics Are Used
- Types of Heuristics
- Difference Between Heuristics and Algorithms
- How Heuristics Can Lead to Bias
- How to Make Better Decisions
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Heuristics are mental shortcuts that allow people to solve problems and make judgments quickly and efficiently. These rule-of-thumb strategies shorten decision-making time and allow people to function without constantly stopping to think about their next course of action.
However, there are both benefits and drawbacks of heuristics. While heuristics are helpful in many situations, they can also lead to cognitive biases. Becoming aware of this might help you make better and more accurate decisions.
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Nobel-prize winning economist and cognitive psychologist Herbert Simon originally introduced the concept of heuristics in psychology in the 1950s. He suggested that while people strive to make rational choices, human judgment is subject to cognitive limitations. Purely rational decisions would involve weighing all the potential costs and possible benefits of every alternative.
But people are limited by the amount of time they have to make a choice as well as the amount of information they have at their disposal. Other factors such as overall intelligence and accuracy of perceptions also influence the decision-making process.
During the 1970s, psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman presented their research on cognitive biases. They proposed that these biases influence how people think and the judgments people make.
As a result of these limitations, we are forced to rely on mental shortcuts to help us make sense of the world. Simon's research demonstrated that humans were limited in their ability to make rational decisions, but it was Tversky and Kahneman's work that introduced the study of heuristics and the specific ways of thinking that people rely on to simplify the decision-making process.
Heuristics play important roles in both problem-solving and decision-making, as we often turn to these mental shortcuts when we need a quick solution.
Here are a few different theories from psychologists about why we rely on heuristics.
•Attribute substitution: People substitute simpler but related questions in place of more complex and difficult questions.
•Effort reduction: People use heuristics as a type of cognitive laziness to reduce the mental effort required to make choices and decisions.
•Fast and frugal: People use heuristics because they can be fast and correct in certain contexts. Some theories argue that heuristics are actually more accurate than they are biased.
In order to cope with the tremendous amount of information we encounter and to speed up the decision-making process, our brains rely on these mental strategies to simplify things so we don't have to spend endless amounts of time analyzing every detail.
Availability
The availability heuristic involves making decisions based upon how easy it is to bring something to mind. When you are trying to make a decision, you might quickly remember a number of relevant examples. Since these are more readily available in your memory, you will likely judge these outcomes as being more common or frequently occurring. For example, if you are thinking of flying and suddenly think of a number of recent airline accidents, you might feel like air travel is too dangerous and decide to travel by car instead. Because those examples of air disasters came to mind so easily, the availability heuristic leads you to think that plane crashes are more common than they really are.
Familiarity
The familiarity heuristic refers to how people tend to have more favorable opinions of things, people, or places they've experienced before as opposed to new ones. In fact, given two options, people may choose something they're more familiar with even if the new option provides more benefits.
Representativeness
The representativeness heuristic involves making a decision by comparing the present situation to the most representative mental prototype. When you are trying to decide if someone is trustworthy, you might compare aspects of the individual to other mental examples you hold. A soft-spoken older woman might remind you of your grandmother, so you might immediately assume that she is kind, gentle, and trustworthy. However, this is an example of a heuristic bias, as you can't know someone trustworthy based on their age alone.
Though the terms are often confused, heuristics and algorithms are two distinct terms in psychology.
Algorithms are step-by-step instructions that lead to predictable, reliable outcomes; whereas heuristics are mental shortcuts that are basically best guesses. Algorithms always lead to accurate outcomes, whereas, heuristics do not.
While heuristics can help us solve problems and speed up our decision-making process, they can introduce errors. As in the examples above, heuristics can lead to inaccurate judgments about how commonly things occur and about how representative certain things may be.
Just because something has worked in the past does not mean that it will work again, and relying on a heuristic can make it difficult to see alternative solutions or come up with new ideas.
Heuristics can also contribute to stereotypes and prejudice. Because people use mental shortcuts to classify and categorize people, they often overlook more relevant information and create stereotyped categorizations that are not in tune with reality.
How the Status Quo Bias Influences Decisions
Slow Down
We are more likely to make an error in judgment if we are trying to make a decision quickly or are under pressure to do so. Whenever possible, take a few deep breaths. Do something to distract yourself from the decision at hand. When you return to it, you may find you have a fresh perspective, or notice something you didn't before.
Identify the Goal
We tend to focus automatically on what works for us and make decisions that serve our best interest. But take a moment to know what you're trying to achieve. Are there other people who will be affected by this decision? What's best for them? Is there a common goal that can be achieved that will serve all parties?
Process Your Emotions
Fast decision-making is often influenced by emotions from past experiences that bubble to the surface. Is your decision based on facts or emotions? While emotions can be helpful, they may affect decisions in a negative way if they prevent us from seeing the full picture.
- Describe. You may describe aspects of daily life with no conscious thought or effort. For example, labeling a tree as “green” is an act of describing and observing.
- Explain. In addition to describing, psychologists may seek to explain behaviors. The goal of explaining is to answer questions about why people react to certain stimuli and how various factors can impact personality and mental health.
- Predict. Making predictions about how humans think and act is the third goal of psychology. By looking at past observed behavior (describing and explaining), psychologists aim to predict when or if others might exhibit the same behavior.
- Change/Control. Psychology often aims to change, influence, or control behavior to make positive, constructive, meaningful, and lasting changes in people’s lives.
Oct 24, 2023 · A heuristic in psychology is a mental shortcut or rule of thumb that simplifies decision-making and problem-solving. Heuristics often speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution, but they can also lead to cognitive biases.
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