Representativeness Heuristic - Psychology Definition of the Week

Definition: The representativeness heuristic is a type of mental shortcut first described by psychologists Tversky and Kahneman. In this particular mental shortcut, we tend to judge the likelihood of an event by how well it matches our existing prototypes of such events. When an object or event seems more representative, we tend to judge it as more likely or probable. While such heuristics can help us make judgements or decisions quickly, they can also lead to errors.

Learn more about the representativeness heuristic.