The affect heuristic is a type of mental shortcut in which people make decisions that are heavily influenced by their current emotions. Essentially, your affect (a psychological term for emotional response) plays a critical role in the choices and decisions you make. Show
It might not come as much of a surprise to learn that your emotions influence all types of decisions, both big and small. After all, you might already know that you are more likely to take risks or try new things when you are happy, but less likely to go out on a limb when you're feeling glum. If you've ever gone with your "gut feeling" when faced with a difficult decision, you are probably relying on the affect heuristic. In psychology, a heuristic is a mental shortcut that allows people to make decisions quickly and efficiently. In this case, it is the way you feel (your affect) toward a particular stimulus that influences the decisions you make. Press Play for Advice On Making DecisionsHosted by Editor-in-Chief and therapist Amy Morin, LCSW, this episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast shares a simple way to make a tough decision. Click below to listen now.
Follow Now: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts How It WorksYour feelings of the relative "goodness" or "badness" of a particular person, object, or activity impact the decisions that you ultimately make. So how much of your emotions might influence your decision-making and what impact might it have on your life?
ExampleImagine a situation in which two children arrive at a local park to play. One child has spent a lot of time playing on swings at a neighbor's house, so he has nothing but positive feelings when he sees the swing set at the park. He immediately makes the decision that the swings will be fun (high benefit, low risk) and runs to play on the swings. The other child, however, recently had a negative experience while playing on the swings at a friend's house. When he sees the swings at the park, he draws on this recent negative memory and decides that the swings are a bad choice (low benefit, high risk). Impact of the Affect HeuristicMuch like other heuristics, the affect heuristic has its advantages and disadvantages. While such mental shortcuts allow people to make quick and often reasonably accurate decisions, they can also lead to poor decision-making. Consider how advertising can sometimes make unhealthy activities such as smoking or eating unhealthy foods seem both positive and appealing. These ads can sometimes influence the emotions of consumers, which can lead to poor health decisions and risky behaviors that can have serious, long-term consequences. A 1978 study by Fischhoff et al. played a significant role in the study of the affect heuristic. The researchers discovered that judgments of benefits and risks were negatively correlated—the greater the perceived benefit, the lower the perceived risk. At the same time, the more risky behaviors seem, the less the perceived benefits were. Certain behaviors such as drinking alcohol and smoking were viewed as high-risk, low-benefit while other things such as antibiotics and vaccines were seen as high-benefit, low-risk. Researchers have also discovered that emotions can also influence the judgments people make about statistical information. In one study, clinicians were presented with recidivism rates that were either presented as probabilities (such as 30%) or frequencies (such as 30 out of 100). The clinicians rated mental health patients as presenting a higher risk when the numbers were presented as frequencies rather than probabilities. Why? Researchers suggest that presenting the data as frequencies lead to more extreme judgments on the part of clinicians because it creates a mental image of the individual lapsing back into their old behaviors. A Word From VerywellClearly, the affect heuristic can have a powerful influence on decisions both large and small. So what can you do to prevent emotions from contributing to poor decision making? Simply being aware of the phenomenon might be helpful. Perhaps by being aware of your tendency to be swayed by your feelings and emotions, you will be better able to make more objective and clear-minded decisions in the future. Research also suggests that talking to yourself in the third person can be an effective form of self-control. The next time you need to make a decision during an emotional moment, take a moment to talk silently to yourself using the third person. It might help you stay calm, collected, and level-headed, a strategy that may prevent bad decisions made in the heat of the moment. Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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Kendra Cherry Thanks for your feedback! Which of the following is an example of the availability heuristics?Which of the following is the best example of the use of the availability heuristic? Making a judgement according to past experiences that are most easily recalled.
What is an availability heuristic in psychology?The availability heuristic is a cognitive bias in which you make a decision based on an example, information, or recent experience that is that readily available to you, even though it may not be the best example to inform your decision (Tversky & Kahneman, 1973).
What is a heuristic give an example of the availability and representative heuristic?However, availability heuristic uses recent events in order to help judge future events occurring. For example, representative heuristic relies on our imagination to align with preconceived stereotypes of people and objects.
How does availability heuristics affect decision making?When faced with a choice, we often lack the time or resources to investigate in greater depth. Faced with the need for an immediate decision, the availability heuristic allows people to quickly arrive at a conclusion. This can be helpful when you are trying to make a decision or judgment about the world around you.
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