What is AVAILABILITY BIAS

Does Iraq or Tanzania have more inhabitants? You have probably responded based on how quickly Iraq or Tanzania have become familiar to you. If the examples are readily available in memory, then the other examples of this type are assumed to be common. So, we see how we have a certain facility to remember content

In this Psychology-Online article, we will delve together into the secret behind this mental mechanism, discovering what is availability bias. Find out what this bias consists of, what it is for, the main effects of availability bias and examples of it.

Index

1. What is availability bias?
2. What is availability bias for?
3. Effects of availability bias
4. Examples of availability bias

The bias or availability heuristic is the tendency to judge the frequency or probability of an event or situation in terms of how easy it is to think of examples of that event or situation. Therefore, in the use of this heuristic, the most important factor for people is not the content of the memory, but the

Therefore, if you wonder what the meaning of availability bias is, it can be defined as a mental shortcut which is based on immediate examples that come to the mind of a particular person when evaluating a specific issue, concept, method or decision. Find out what others cognitive biases exist.

The use of the availability bias evidences a basic principle of social thinking: people are slow in deduce particular cases from a general truth, but they are incredibly quick to deduce a general truth from a case alive. The availability bias, in effect, derives from the human mind's demand for make decisions quickly, taking into account one's own past experience (direct experience) or others (indirect experience).

Despite being an ineffective strategy, it has the advantage of transmitting the experience between generations about the most important events in order to avoid repeating them mistakes. For example, proverbs, fairy tales, etc. Discover how to learn from past mistakes.

If an event has a strong emotional influence on the human mind, it is very likely that it is also an important event. From an evolutionary point of view, the availability bias is a fast and effective strategy, although only partially, to give the best possible response in a situation of scarce information.

The heuristic cognitive bias of availability also explains why strong anecdotes can be more convincing that statistical information and why perceived risk is often separated from risks real.

What is the availability to make judgment? This part of the assumption that if something can be easily remembered, it must be important, or at least more important than alternative solutions that are not so easily recoverable. According to this dynamic, people tend to orient their judgments largely on issues that are the subject of of more recent information, making new opinions erroneously conditioned by the latest news.

It is clear that our naive statistical intuitions and our consequent fears They are not guided by calculations or reasoning, but by emotions in tune with the availability heuristic. This can lead to attributing excessive weight to a situation experienced and therefore, for example, be afraid of the wrong things.

The availability of the consequences associated with an action is positively correlated with the perceptions of the scope of the consequences of that action. In other words, the easier it is to remember the consequences of something, the more these consequences will be perceived as more important. Often, people trust the content of their beliefs if their implications are not questioned because of the difficulty they have in examining the subject in question.

Causes of availability bias

Availability bias is the cause of effective irrational behaviors in consumer options. In the contemporary age, man can access a greater amount of information than in the past, but still mainly a cognitive-decision-making process based on the availability of information, memory and hearing.

For example, a consumer makes his purchasing decisions on inadequate information, at the risk of making bad decisions and wasting his money.

Since the news stream on air accidents It is a readily available memory to many, particularly after September 11, 2001, it is often considered more dangerous to travel by plane than by car. Here are examples of availability bias on this topic.

Examples of September 11

Between 2000 and 2001, American travelers were 39.5 times more likely to die in a car accident than in a flight covering the same distance. For most air travelers, the most dangerous part of the trip was the car ride to the airport.

In the immediate aftermath of September 11, many people left the flights and used the roads. Myers (2001) had estimated that if Americans had flown 20% less than driving miles, another 800 road deaths could be expected in the following year. In this article, we tell you the meaning, causes, symptoms and treatment of aerophobia or fear of flying.

A German researcher took the time to verify that prediction and confirmed an increase of about 350 deaths in the last three months of 2001, compared to the average of the last three months of the last five years (Gigerenzer, 2004). The terrorists who died on September 11 killed more anonymous people than the 266 people who lost their lives in the four hijacked planes.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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• Myers, G. D. (2009). Social psychology. Milan: McGraw-Hill.