Watch
Availability heuristic 0:32
A 32-second explainer of Availability heuristic, narrated over the same demo you can try yourself.
Try the interactive Availability heuristic demo
What this video covers
The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut where you judge how likely or common something is based on how easily examples come to mind. Vivid, recent, or repeated things feel more common than they are - so it’s your memory, not reality, that shapes your sense of likelihood. You can see this in action here on this page.
You saw the dramatic item again and again, so your gut said it was everywhere - but the jar tells the truth: it was always rare. That gap is the availability heuristic. What's repeated and vivid feels frequent, whatever the real mix is, which is exactly why one loud headline can reshape what a whole audience believes is common.
