Heuristics are fast, efficient mental shortcuts that we use all the time to help us make decisions and solve problems.
These rule-of-thumb strategies can decrease our cognitive load to make choices without becoming overwhelmed. Heuristics can be both helpful and harmful so it’s important to recognize when a heuristic might not be such a great idea.
We make hundreds of choices every day, ranging from what food to eat to how to manage finances and health. Imagine if every time you had to make a decision your brain had to weigh the pros and cons of each choice. You would drown in a tidal wave of information. Heuristics allow us to use mental shortcuts to make rapid fire decisions. Should I bring an umbrella to work today? I could weigh all the available information such as barometric pressure, humidity, weather patterns at this time of year, and research my location on multiple weather apps. Or I could look outside and see some clouds that look like rain and just bring the umbrella.
We developed heuristics in our cognitive processing because it just isn’t possible to make well thought out, rational, and evidence informed choices for everything we do. Heuristics can be correct, even when they are based on flawed or inaccurate perceptions. They are most helpful for less important and more frequent day-to-day decisions.
Unfortunately, heuristics can also get us in trouble. This is especially true when we need to make complex or important decisions. Heuristics introduce significant cognitive bias into our decision making and can lead us down the wrong path. Heuristics are an example of System 1 thinking: fast, automatic, intuitive, and with little effort. They are often driven by our instincts and past experiences. For more complex decisions, we may need System 2 thinking: slow, methodical, conscious, and logical. This type of thinking is more work and more time but can give the thinker time to weigh all the options, reflect on which cognitive biases may be playing a role, and strategize to make the best choice.
How can we avoid pitfalls of heuristics and improve our decision making?
✋ Slow down. Ask yourself: what is the decision I need to make, what are my values and preferences around this decision, what do different choices mean for me and others, and what information do I have or need to make this decision?
🤨 Check your emotions. Emotions are key drivers of fast decision making and can leave us open to all sorts of cognitive bias.
📕 Gather information from trusted sources.
🧠 Be open to changing your mind! It’s ok to make a choice, rethink it, and decide something else.
😀 And check out some of our other posts about cognitive biases and decision making!
Stay safe. Stay well.
Those Nerdy Girls
Links:
The Decision Lab: Why do we take mental shortcuts?
The Decision Lab: System 1 and System 2 Thinking
verywellmind: What Are Heuristics?
Humanities and Social Sciences Communication: A brief history of heuristics: how did research on heuristics evolve?
