availability heuristic
ah-VAY-lah-bil-ih-tee hyoo-RIS-tik
əˌveɪləˈbɪlɪti hjʊˈrɪstɪkListen
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Dictionary meaning
a cognitive shortcut whereby people estimate the likelihood of events based on how easily examples come to mind; events that are vivid, recent, emotionally salient, or heavily covered in the media are judged as more probable than their actual frequency warrants; the heuristic was identified by Kahneman and Tversky and explains why people overestimate the risk of dramatic but rare events like plane crashes and shark attacks while underestimating the danger of mundane but statistically more lethal risks like car accidents or heart disease
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