Glossary / Lexicon

Heuristics is defined as informal, intuitive, speculative strategies that sometimes lead to an effective solution and sometimes do not; mental shortcuts that provide quick estimates about the likelihood of uncertain events

In psychology, heuristics are mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that people use to make decisions or solve problems more efficiently. Heuristics allow people to process information and make judgments quickly, but they can also lead to biases and errors in judgment.

There are several different types of heuristics that people use in decision-making, including:

• Availability heuristic: This heuristic involves basing judgments on information that is readily available or easily remembered. For example, an individual might estimate the probability of an event occurring based on how easily they can think of similar events occurring in the past.
• Anchoring and adjustment heuristic: This heuristic involves making judgments based on an initial starting point or anchor, and then adjusting from there. For example, an individual might make an initial estimate of a value and then adjust that estimate based on additional information. -representativeness heuristic: This heuristic involves making judgments based on how similar something is to a typical or representative example. For example, an individual might judge the probability of an event occurring based on how similar it is to a typical or representative example of that type of event.

Overall, heuristics are mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that people use to make decisions or solve problems more efficiently, but they can also lead to biases and errors in judgment.