A heuristic is a mental shortcut that assists in making decisions and understanding complex problems. They lead to efficiencies in thinking but can also produce biases. Some of the most common are the availability heuristic (making decisions based on easily retrievable instances) and the representativeness heuristic (making judgments based on likeness to a category). Heuristics are pivotal in everyday decision-making but, under uncertainty, they have the potential to substantially distort the reality of a situation. For example, the stereotype of a glasses wearer being intelligent illustrates the representativeness heuristic.
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