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Usability & InteractionMember ingredient
Availability Heuristic
When estimating how common or likely something is, people may substitute how readily relevant examples come to mind.
Public evidence overview
One checked source, with its limits.
This preview is not the complete evidence base. Use it as a question to investigate in your own product, not as a prediction of what an individual will do.
Checked source previewAcademic paper
The availability heuristic revisited: Experienced ease of retrieval in mundane frequency estimates
Research-assisted source review
- What it supports
- Frequency estimates were lowest when an irrelevant context was said to facilitate recall and highest when it was said to inhibit recall, showing that judgments depended on whether retrieval ease seemed diagnostic.
- Where it may not transfer
- The study used a controlled explanation about an irrelevant context and mundane estimates. It does not imply that a disclosure always removes an accessibility effect or that users can identify why information came to mind in a complex real decision.
See how sources and limitations are checked in our editorial method.
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