Joanne will not go out at night because she hears from her local news station about the large number of muggings and robberies that occur in her city. However, crime in Joanne's city has actually gone down in the past few years. To which bias is Joanne falling victim?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Joanne is using the availability heuristic, which is when people judge the likelihood of an event based on how easily instances of it come to mind. In this case, the news reports of crime are easily available to Joanne and are influencing her perception of the actual crime rate in her city.

Joanne Will Not Go Out at Night Because She Hears