“It was made in an instant
Without a chance to think
Jump into the water first
Then think about float or sink…”
In the amazing book by Daniel Kahneman called’ Thinking, Fast and Slow you have a section on something called Heuristic and Bias.
The whole concept has now taken a management level and Heuristics is an important phenomenon!
Remember that famous joke on how in an interview one person was asked, “What is your greatest positive quality?”
The person answered I make quick and prompt decisions!
So he was later asked some complicated mathematical problem like what is the square root of say ten thousand and he answered instantly “ten!” (or something; the answer is not important here so do not get into the accuracy!)
The interviewer shouted, “But that is completely wrong!”
To which the person replied, “I said I make prompt or quick decisions! I did not tell that I make the right decisions!”
That is closer to Heuristic!
Though it sounds like Heretic, which means someone whose beliefs or actions are considered wrong by most people, because they disagree with beliefs that are generally accepted; Heuristic is close but means something else!
The root meaning is from Ancient Greek which literally translates to “I find, discover”! And is thus the process by which humans use mental shortcuts to arrive at decisions.
Practically, heuristics are simple strategies that humans, animals, organizations, and even machines use to quickly form judgments, make decisions, and find solutions to complex problem!
Some common examples in day to day life are like how a person is stuck in traffic and makes an impulsive decision to take the other route even though he or she does not know the way. Someone is offered a job and accepts it without further details and so on!
When you apply affect heuristic, you view a situation quickly and decide without further research whether a thing is good or bad
This is an important tool in marketing and sales because Impulse buying is a great way to make sales!
There are some variations to this and modifications like a term called the anchoring and adjustment heuristic. Here you use a starting point to anchor your point or judgment, but then you adjust your information based on new evidence. Like how a A salesman initially offering a high price and eventually arriving at a fair value with the customer!
In another terminology called the availability heuristic, you use the information available to you to make the best guess or decision possible like trying to guess the population of the city you live in even though you have never looked up the exact number of people and like closer to the election your assuming that most people in your city will vote a certain way because you and your immediate community are voting that way!
There is another terminology called the Common Sense Heuristic which is defined as a practical and prudent approach that is applied to a decision where the right and wrong answers seem relatively clear cut. The commonest example for this is like how if it is raining outside, you should bring an umbrella. Other cited ones are how you (not me since I cannot stress enough that I am a Teetotaler and proud of it!) choose not to drive after having one too many drinks or how you (this is definitely me! since I am very choosy of the food I eat!) decide not to eat food if you don’t know what it is!
You also have the Familiarity Heuristic which is how something, someone or somewhere familiar is favored over the unknown. Like a group is deciding between a new restaurant and a restaurant they have been to many times and ultimately goes to the restaurant they usually go to or How a driver takes the familiar route to work every day even though there is another, faster way and finally consumers buy the same brands over and over regardless of the quality of the products!
Finally (at least in my blog! Since Heuristics is a behemoth in sales techniques!) you have the Representativeness Heuristic! This was one of the first ones to be described by Daniel and was a part of an experiment done!
In the original experiment on representativeness heuristic during the 1970s, psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman gave participants descriptions of a man named Tom.
They characterized him as organized, detail-oriented, competent, and having a strong moral compass. Based on these details, participants were asked to guess Tom’s college major.
Using representativeness, the participants assumed that Tom was an engineering student even though there were relatively few engineering students at the university where the study was conducted! It was a fallacy because here there are lots of assumption made which may not be true!
Some very common examples are assuming someone is arrogant and self-absorbed because they are reserved, quiet and rarely interact with people! or
how we judge someone’s nationality using only preconceived notions based on the way they look and talk even though you have not spoken to them or learned anything about them.
In medical parlour, if you see a doctor with clean white coat we assume he or she is a dermatologist! While one with white stains on the pants is an Ortho GUY! Or one with a complicated steth is a cardiologist! Or one with the Knee Hammer is a General Physician! Or a LADY doc with a green Ot dress draped half heartedly may be the Obstetrician!
These are all examples of the Representativeness Heuristic! And finally a well adjusted smartly groomed person with a clean coat and calm demeanour maybe the ENT! Now this final statement is suspect since I am ENT so this is not only an example of Representative Heuristic but also Bias! Another example of Bias is like how I like the tamil Version Gajini directed by celebrity Murugadas Arunachalam more than the hindi version since I am a South Indian! Though both are really good!
Now make a Non Heuristic decision to sleep!
Shubh ratri!
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