Availability Bias

Our judgements are heavily influenced by what comes to mind more easily. "System 1 is radically insensitive to both the quality and quantity of information that gives rise to impressions and intuitions" (TFAS). If retrieval is easy, a category will be judged to be large. A salient event that attracts attention will be easily retrieved from memory. Dramatic events temporarily increase the availability of its category in memory. Personal experiences, pictures, and vivid examples are always more available in memory.

#judgment

  1. A Neural network framework for cognitive biases, by J.E. (Hans) Korteling, A.-M. Brouwer, A. Toet, Frontiers of Psychology (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6129743/)
  2. Tversky, Amos, and Daniel Kahneman. “Availability: A Heuristic for Judging Frequency and Probability.” Cognitive Psychology 5, no. 2 (1973): 207–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(73)90033-9.
  3. Tversky, Amos, and Daniel Kahneman. "Extensional versus intuitive reasoning: The conjunction fallacy in probability judgment." Psychological Review 90, no. 4 (1983), 293-315. doi:10.1037/0033-295x.90.4.293.
  4. Mason, Betsy. “Making People Aware of Their Implicit Biases Doesn't Usually Change Minds. But Here's What Does Work.” PBS, 10 June 2020.
  5. Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015.
  6. See 1
  7. Samson, Alain. The Behavioral Economics Guide 2017 (with an introduction by Cass Sunstein). Retrieved from https://www.behavioraleconomics.com
  8. “LOTTO 6/49 Odds & Payouts.” OLG. https://lottery.olg.ca/en-ca/lotto-games/lotto-649/lotto-649-odds-and-payouts.
  9. Eisenman, Russell. "Belief that drug usage in the United States is increasing when it is really decreasing: An example of the availability heuristic." Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 31, no. 4 (1993), 249-252. doi:10.3758/bf03334920.
  10. Tyler, Tom R., and Fay L. Cook. "The mass media and judgments of risk: Distinguishing impact on personal and societal level judgments." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 47, no. 4 (1984), 693-708. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.47.4.693.
  11. Logan, Nick. “Trans People Already Fighting for Rights in Tennessee Have a New Fear in the Wake of a Tragedy | CBC News.” CBCnews, 1 Apr. 2023, www.cbc.ca/news/world/nashville-shooting-transgender-rights-1.6797599.
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