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availability heuristic
You determine the truth by how quickly it arrives.
A 1991 study found that people who were asked to recall six instances of assertive behavior rated themselves as more assertive than those asked to recall twelve.
We rely on the ease of retrieval as a proxy for frequency. Because finding twelve examples is cognitively difficult, the brain concludes the trait must be less common.
You mistake how hard you work to remember something for its actual importance.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Schwarz et al., 1991
- What the check found
- The study (Schwarz et al., 1991) is a seminal paper in psychology regarding the availability heuristic. The findings support the claim as summarized.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.