We often make predictions based on how much a description fits our preconceived stereotypes. This leads to ignoring base rates (base rate neglect) and the accuracy of the description.

Representative heuristic

An example of a stereotype is the negative belief that all older adults are slow and incompetent. Even though many individual older adults may in fact be spry and intelligent, this negative belief is overgeneralized and applied to all members of the older adult group.

Example of Stereotype: Older Adults

A well-known stereotype involves beliefs about racial differences in athletics. For example, Black athletes are often stereotyped as being more athletic yet less intelligent than White athletes, and these beliefs persist despite many high-profile examples to the contrary. Such stereotypes can negatively influence how these athletes are treated by others and how they view their own capabilities.

Stereotypes in Sports

Prejudice is a negative attitude and feeling toward an individual based solely on their membership in a particular group. It often begins in the form of a stereotype and can lead to overgeneralized negative beliefs applied to all members of that group, regardless of their individual characteristics.

Prejudice

Discrimination is a negative action or behavior toward an individual as a result of their membership in a particular group. It often arises when people act on their negative beliefs (stereotypes) and negative attitudes (prejudice), leading to the poor treatment of the target group as a form of oppression.

Discrimination

A stereotype is a specific belief or assumption about individuals based solely on their membership in a group, regardless of their individual characteristics. Stereotypes are generally well-known within a given culture and often become overgeneralized and applied to all members of a group.

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- Substituting questions
- Representative heuristic 
- Availability heuristic
- Affect heuristic
- Anchoring 
- Stereotype
- Self-Based Heuristic (SBH)
- Frugal Cognitive Heuristic
- Bandwagon heuristic
- Endorsement heuristic
- Working backwards

Types of heuristics

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Nelson Education.


Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

The self-based heuristic refers to the degree to which an individual’s own characteristics contribute to ratings of another’s personality. We use the self as a reference to judge others.

Self-Based Heuristic (SBH)

The emotion at the time of hearing about something affects our judgement of it. On the most basic level if we are in a bad mood, we will evaluate something worse and if we are in a good mood, we will evaluate it as better. 

Affect Heuristic

Fast and frugal heuristics are used during the decision-making process when understanding of the situation and the time and cognitive power needed to make the decision is limited (bounded rationality). 

Fast and Frugal Cognitive Heuristics

People use the popularity of an idea to inform what kind of content they select. It is a continuous cycle in which people see a post has many likes, so they share it, garnering more likes.

Bandwagon Heuristic

When people equate the popularity of ideas to the quality of the ideas. People are more willing to adopt what their peers have deemed as valuable.

Endorsement Heuristic

Working backwards is a problem-solving heuristic where an individual starts with the desired final outcome and works in reverse to determine the necessary steps to achieve it. This method is frequently applied in everyday planning, often without conscious thought.

Working Backwards

The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut where individuals make decisions based on information that is most easily recalled, such as a recent experience or a vivid example. This reliance on readily available information can lead to flawed judgments, as the most accessible information is not always the most representative or accurate for making a sound decision.

Availability Heuristic

System 1 often substitutes hard-to-answer questions with easier ones (without the awareness of system 2).  

Substituting Questions (Heuristic Questions)

When people consider a value and then have to estimate an unknown quantity. The estimated number will stay close to original number considered, whether or not the original number is related to the unknown quantity. There is debate on whether the effect is an adjustment heuristic (Tversky), an example of priming (Kahneman), or both.

Anchoring

The task decomposition heuristic is a problem-solving strategy that involves breaking down a large or complex goal into a series of smaller, more manageable steps. This approach makes overwhelming tasks feel more achievable. It also helps in identifying errors and separating known elements from unknown ones, a technique famously used by physicist Enrico Fermi.

Task Decomposition Heuristic

After watching extensive news coverage of a rare but dramatic lottery win in their city, a person starts spending a significant portion of their income on lottery tickets. Despite statistical evidence showing the odds are astronomically low, the vivid, recent example of a winner makes the possibility feel much more likely. Which mental shortcut best explains this person's change in behavior?

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