Availability Heuristic

A mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a given person's mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method, or decision. This can lead to overestimating the likelihood of events occurring, simply because they are more memorable.

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Key Insights & Principles

Decision Making

1. We often base decisions on how readily information or examples come to mind.
2. Our judgement of probability and risk is often based on the availability heuristic.
3. Media impacts our decision making.

1. Judge risk and probability on long term averages, not easy to recall, recent examples.
2. Research and gather relevant information and examples.

Book References