PSYC 023 Lecture Notes - Lecture 27: Availability Heuristic, Fallacy, Psych
Document Summary
We are limited in our ability to process all relevant information, or we may lack the kinds of training needed to employ fully the principles of attribution theory. With our busy days and minds we often don"t have time to actually use attribution so we make mental shortcuts and these lead to biases. Quick, easy attributions that usually lead to error. Although the second is more true people chose the first option because it was easier to come up with words that start with r. Our estimates of likelihood are heavily influenced by events that are readily available in memory. Availability heuristic can lead us in two ways: false- consensus effect- a tendency for peoples to over estimate the extent to which others share their opinions, attributes and behaviors. If the info is credible then it can seem like one vivid image is worth a thousand numbers.
