Question

Robert heard many news reports talking about a number of cases of car theft. He also read about several instances of car thefts in the newspaper. He comes to a conclusion that car thefts are more common in the place where he lives. The above scenario is an example of ________.

Answer 1

Answer: Availability Heuristic

Explanation: Individuals may have to rely on superficial information or ideas in passing certain judgement or decision making. These information could be especially useful when the need to make quick decisions which doesn't allow in depth research or study are required. Decisions or judgement passed using these techniques are made from AVAILABLE HEURISTIC. Due to the superficial nature of information associated with availability heuristic, they tend to be inaccurate when scrutinized.

In the context above, due to the information known to Roberts he concluded that car theft is more common where he lives, even without having compared car theft in his area to other areas. Therefore, Robert's conclusion might be incorrect but the information he had was enough to give an account of an incident very rampant in his area.

Answer 2

• Robert heard many news reports talking about a number of cases of car theft. He also read about several instances of car thefts in the newspaper. He comes to a conclusion that car thefts are more common in the place where he lives. The above scenario is an example of availability heuristic.