Representativeness Heuristic | Examples & Definition
The representativeness heuristic is a mental shortcut we use to decide the probability of something based on how typical we think it is. We assign this thing to a category and decide how similar we think it is to an “average” representative of that category.
She is dressed in colorful, flamboyant clothes and is reading the arts section of The New York Times.
When she gets out at the next stop, your friend says, “Do you think she was a famous artist?”
You reply, “Well, she definitely wasn’t a lawyer!”
Although there is a much greater proportion of lawyers in the population than artists, you think that the woman is more likely to be an artist because her appearance and choice of reading material match your perception of a typical artist.
The representativeness heuristic allows us to make quick and efficient decisions, but it can cause us to arrive at false conclusions and disregard relevant information.
What is the representativeness heuristic?
You can think of the representativeness heuristic as a mental shortcut we use to simplify decision-making. Like other heuristics (e.g., the availability heuristic and anchoring bias), it is a form of cognitive bias that allows us to form judgments with minimal effort. However, the conclusions it leads us to draw may be flawed because it can make us overlook important information.
When you use the representativeness heuristic, you make a decision about how likely something is by categorizing it and deciding how similar it is to a typical example of something in that category. If we think that something closely resembles this imagined “prototype,” we estimate that there is a high probability that it belongs to this category.
At the beginning of the first class, you watch the other participants take their seats.
You notice a middle-aged businessman dressed in a gray suit carrying a briefcase and wonder if he needs to learn Italian for work.
To your surprise, he goes to the front of the class and introduces himself as your new teacher.
The teacher does not match your prototype for the category of language teacher—perhaps you were expecting a more casually dressed woman.
Your feeling of surprise can be explained by the representativeness heuristic.
Judgments we make influenced by the representativeness heuristic may be biased, which can result in prejudice and stereotyping.
Deciding how similar we think A is to B is not an objective way of determining how likely it is that A belongs to a specific group or that A has resulted in B. To estimate probability accurately, we need to consider the existence of complex relationships and explanations, as well as important concepts such as sample size.
Reasons for the representativeness heuristic
Psychologists think that the representativeness heuristic occurs for a number of reasons.
-
It helps us make decisions efficiently
Heuristics like this are a way of coping with the vast number of choices we have to make as we go about our everyday lives. The representativeness heuristic simplifies things, like a rule of thumb, and generally produces decisions that are “good enough.” It is a way of conserving our mental resources.
-
We depend on categorization to navigate the world around us
If we can assign something to a category, we can assume that we already know a lot about it and don’t have to treat it as if it were totally new.
Our mental categories are constructed around our perceptions of “average” representatives of each category. If we look at a domestic cat, for instance, we can quickly and efficiently decide that it’s a relatively harmless animal that we don’t need to be scared of, even if we’ve never encountered that particular cat or breed before.
-
We exaggerate the significance of similarity at the expense of other more relevant information.
Our tendency to focus on similarity can make us overlook the most relevant factors in deciding how probable something is, such as how common an occurrence is within a particular population (base rate information). This could cause a base rate fallacy.
For instance, imagine you are asked to decide if someone is a lawyer or an engineer, and you know that they liked physics lessons at school. The natural inclination would be to assume that they are probably an engineer, even if you also know they work for an organization comprising 10% engineers and 90% lawyers.
Representativeness heuristic example
The representativeness heuristic can cause us to think that a specific example of a scenario is more probable than a less specific one because it more closely matches our perception of a typical example of that scenario.
Which of these options is more probable?
- A: Paul is now a financial analyst who plays guitar in his spare time.
- B: Paul now plays guitar in his spare time.
Based on what you know about Paul, it’s easy to jump to the conclusion that A is more likely. The details about his strengths at school probably match our stereotype of a financial analyst.
But the probability of two independent events co-occurring is never greater than the probability of either event occurring alone.
The probability that a person is a financial analyst and plays the guitar is lower than that they only play the guitar.
The representativeness heuristic leads us to wrongly conclude that the more specific, detailed scenario is more probable.
This example also illustrates why the representativeness heuristic is one of the factors behind the conjunction fallacy.
Representativeness heuristic vs availability heuristic
The representativeness heuristic and the availability heuristic both help us to minimize the mental load of decision-making by providing quick ways of estimating probability.
- When employing the representativeness heuristic, we estimate probability by determining how closely an outcome matches our perception of a typical representative (a prototype) of a particular category.
- When employing the availability heuristic, we estimate the probability of an outcome based on how easily we can recall similar outcomes.
So, the representativeness heuristic can make us jump to conclusions by overemphasizing the importance of similarity. But the availability heuristic can make us jump to conclusions by directing our focus toward things that come to mind most easily.
Frequently asked questions about the representativeness heuristic
- Why is the representativeness heuristic a problem?
-
The representativeness heuristic directs our focus toward superficial similarities between people and scenarios and can therefore lead to stereotyping.
Basing decisions on our stereotypes of a person’s ethnic identity, profession, or gender can lead to discrimination and bias.
- Which example best describes the representativeness heuristic?
-
A good example of the representativeness heuristic is a juror deciding that a person is not guilty of a crime because their appearance is very smart and ordinary. The person’s appearance does not match the juror’s perception of an “average” criminal.
