When faced with uncertainty, individuals use cognitive mechanisms known as heuristics to make decisions. Heuristics are mental short-cuts that allow people to make decisions without spending a lot of time analyzing the available information ( Hayibor, & Wasieleski, 2009). The use of heuristics can be attributed to the discrepancy that exists between the complex social world and the capability of the human brain to process the available information. Availability heuristics and representative heuristics are among the frequently used mental short-cuts in decision-making processes.
Availability heuristic allows individuals to make decisions based on how available examples of that particular situation are in their minds. In uncertain situations, availability heuristic facilitates the estimation of probability and frequency of the situation, thus allowing an individual to make a decision based on that estimation (Tversky &Kahneman, 1973). Representative heuristic, on the other hand, will enable people to make decisions based on how similar a person or event is to an existing prototype in their mind. A prototype is a typical example of a person, object, or situation that exists in the mind of an individual. A prototypical event or person in a particular category should possess the highest typical traits of that category (Wickham, 2003) .
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I have used both heuristics in several decision-making processes in uncertain situations. A friend of mine once asked me between cancer and road accidents, which, in my opinion, caused more deaths in our state. I did not have the statistics and the time to research; hence I used the availability heuristics to answer him. Based on the news reports about road accidents in our state in the past couple of months, I quickly responded that road accidents were responsible for most deaths. I later checked the statistics on Google and realized that actually, cancer had caused more deaths. The availability heuristic allowed me to use the examples that I had of road accidents in my state to make a decision. I was able to make a quick decision, which is an advantage of the heuristic. However, my assumption, in this case, was incorrect. Statistics indicated that cancer caused more deaths than road accidents. The disadvantage is that an overestimation or underestimation of the frequency of the situation or event may lead to incorrect conclusions (Hayibor, & Wasieleski, 2009).
In another situation, sometime last year, we received a new student in our class. She was a petite, blonde, and very outgoing, which made me conclude that she must be a cheerleader. Her name was Stacy, and I later came to realize that she was not a cheerleader as I had thought. Representative heuristic influenced my conclusion than Stacy was a cheerleader. The prototype of a cheerleader in my mind is a petite-blonde who is outgoing. Stacy had all those characteristics. The prototype allowed me to categorize Stacy as a cheerleader. The disadvantage is that an individual may make inaccurate judgments due to cognitive bias. An individual may disregard vital information about the subject that can ensure accurate decision making.
References
Hayibor, S., & Wasieleski, D. M. (2009). Effects of the use of the availability heuristic on ethical decision-making in organizations. Journal of Business Ethics , 84 (1), 151-165.
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1973). Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability. Cognitive psychology , 5 (2), 207-232.
Wickham, P. A. (2003). The representativeness heuristic in judgements involving entrepreneurial success and failure. Management Decision .
