Availability Heuristics is a Mental Shortcut that takes frequent information that is most immediate to your surrounding environment. This most readily affects your decision making to reflect the influences that are most common to you.
For many of us, some of the first informational resources available to us are the local and/or global news that is streamed all over the internet and radio stations. When we stop in at our favorite places for coffee we are most likely catching snippets of news stations on TV's and hearing the morning gossips between our family, comrades, and co-workers that are also frequently repeated. All this information is readily available and presented in an easy to snatch up formate. Thus keeping us up to date on the daily grind without much effort.
With a little digging we might be aware that certain stations and news networks are bias or leaning towards certain train of thoughts. But that is about as far as we are willing to stretch our conscious before we begin or even end our day.
Other factors also play into one’s Availability Heuristics such as subjects that are vivid and shocking. News of a Local Shooting will be easier to remember than say the local food drive at a nearby church. Whereas the revealed truth of something that deeply disturbs you will force your thoughts into a stage of denial and an unwillingness to readily think about the subject thus making it less available.
These are all "Short Cuts" and not necessary a 'Bad' thing and are oftentimes used in cases where data is inconclusive. In many cases these kinds of short cuts are most useful to us in our daily struggles in which we are required to think quickly, problem solve situations, and make quick judgments by using answers and responses most common and available.
But when critical judgment is needed most, we are challenging ourselves to think outside of these Heuristics. Stepping outside of the boxes we place around ourselves and seek out Knowledge through thorough research and unbiased formulation of the facts and evidence towards our subjects.
In your journal, Give an example of when Available Heuristics might be useful in your daily lifestyle. Give another example of when it is not. Do try and keep it personally relatable to you and what you might face on day to day basis.
Posted by: The J.Jedi Keeper
Last Edit: Feb 15 2017