Biases Relating to the Availability Heuristic

Bazerman and Moore identify as biases associated with the availability heuristic what they refer to as “ease of recall” and “retrievability.” In the first bias, one can overestimate the probability of an outcome because of recent and/or particularly vivid experiences. In the second bias, one can underestimate the likelihood of an outcome because it is difficult to come up with pertinent information. Following is an example of each:

• Ease of Recall. A person might decide to follow a standard operating procedure because it is easier to remember it even though, in fact, it has a lower likelihood of producing a desired result than some other approach or procedure. Ease of recall has no necessary relationship to the likelihood of the future occurrence of a decisional outcome.


• Retrievability. Because a manager is more aware of the shortcomings of subordinates he or she sees frequently, he or she might underestimate their overall contributions, assume that they will not improve in the future, and give such individuals less favorable performance appraisals than others who are performing no better or even not as well. Simply because some types of information are easier to acquire than others, it does not follow that they are, therefore, more accurate gauges of what is probable or likely.

For more information concerning the availability heuristic, see this site: Changing Minds' Theory of Availability Heuristic