Heuristics and Biases in Judgment
Describes the mental shortcuts people rely on to make fast judgments under uncertainty, and the systematic errors those shortcuts produce. Introduced by Kahneman and Tversky, this research program shows the errors are predictable and shared across people rather than random noise. Used as the umbrella explanation for specific biases like anchoring, availability, and base-rate neglect.
Questions this Concept answers
- In the Mike-the-librarian example, why is judging Mike more likely to be a librarian than a lawyer based only on his personality traits a statistical error?
Heuristics and Biases: The Mental Shortcuts Behind Predictable Errors
Covers Tversky and Kahneman's 1974 heuristics-and-biases program, framing anchoring, availability, and representativeness as the umbrella research explaining specific judgment errors.