Heuristics

Here’s your alphabetized glossary of the heuristics and their short descriptions:

A

• @Accountability Bias – When being held accountable for decisions influences decision-making.
• @Actor-Observer Bias – Attributing others’ behavior to personality but one’s own to situational factors.
• @Ad Hominem – Evaluating a claim based on who makes it, rather than its merit.
• Adaptive Bias – Bias that arises when making decisions under uncertainty.
• Affect Heuristic – Letting initial emotions toward objects or people dominate attitudes and behaviors.
• All Natural Effect – Favoring natural over processed treatments or products.
• Ambiguity Aversion – Avoiding decisions with unknown outcomes.
• Anchoring – Using the first exposure to a subject as a fixed reference point.
• Anticipation Effect – Being influenced by thinking about future events.
• Arbitrary Coherence – Letting the first price seen affect perceptions of all subsequent prices.
• Ascription of Causality – Assuming causation when evidence only suggests correlation.
• Attentional Bias – Over-focusing on emotionally powerful stimuli.
• Attentional Blindness – Focusing too much on one aspect and missing others.
• Attribute Substitution – Using an easier, related question to answer a harder one.
• Authority Bias – Blindly following those in authority.
• Availability Cascade – Beliefs become accepted through repetition.
• Availability Heuristic – Using readily available information, which might be inaccurate.

B

• Background Contrast Effect – Judging something by comparing it to an obviously inferior benchmark or past experience.
• Bandwagon Effect – Doing or believing something because others do.
• Belief Bias – Accepting something because it sounds plausible, regardless of evidence.

C

• Catalyst Fallacy – Overestimating personal control over achieving an outcome.
• Certainty Effect – Overreacting to small decreases in certainty.
• Certainty Illusion – Desiring 100% confidence before acting.
• Choice Overload – Being overwhelmed by too many options.
• Choosing by Default – Selecting an option because it is the default.
• Comfort Zone Bias – Preferring the familiar and resisting change.
• Commission Bias – Acting when inaction may be better.
• Commitment Bias – Sticking to a position due to public commitment.
• Complication Bias – Preferring simpler decisions even when complexity might lead to better outcomes.
• Compromaxing – Wanting everything without compromise.
• Confirmation Bias – Interpreting evidence to support existing beliefs.
• Creativity Effect – Overvaluing one’s own creative work.
• Customization Bias – Preferring options that allow customization.

D

• Deferred Decision-Making – Delaying or avoiding decisions.
• Diffusion of Responsibility – Feeling less responsible as group size increases.
• Disappointment Aversion – Avoiding choices that might result in disappointment.
• Disjunctive Rule – Choosing based on one standout positive attribute.
• Distinction Bias – Comparing two options side by side instead of separately.
• Dread Risk – Avoiding catastrophic events regardless of probability.
• Dunning-Kruger Effect – Overestimating one’s own knowledge.
• Duration Neglect – Ignoring length of unpleasant events when recalling them.

E

• Egocentric Bias – Overestimating one’s own contribution to group outcomes.
• Empathy Gap – Misjudging others’ perspectives and contexts.
• Empathy-Induced Altruism – Acting altruistically when feeling empathy.
• Endorsement Heuristic – Being influenced by advertising endorsements.
• Endowment Effect – Overvaluing possessions simply because they are yours.
• Enormousity – Struggling to prioritize tasks when juggling many.
• Escalation of Commitment – Increasing investment in a failing decision.
• Experiential Limitations – Using only past experiences to make future decisions.

F

• Familiarity Effect – Preferring familiar options over unfamiliar ones.
• Faulty Generalization Heuristic – Oversimplifying the complex world with limited examples.
• Fluency Heuristic – Preferring options that are easier to process.
• Focusing Effect/Illusion – Overweighting certain details in decision-making.
• Foot-In-The-Door Technique – Complying with larger requests after agreeing to smaller ones.
• Forward Bias – Favoring future outcomes over past ones in comparisons.
• Framing Effect – Decisions change based on presentation of information.
• Frequency Illusion – Noticing something more after it is brought to attention.
• Functional Fixedness – Limiting use of an object to its traditional function.
• Fundamental Attribution Error – Overattributing others’ actions to personality rather than situation.

G

• Group Think – Conforming to group consensus and avoiding dissent.

H

• Halo Effect – Letting a positive trait influence overall perception.
• Happy People, Happy Choices – Making more positive decisions when in a good mood.
• Hyperbolic Discounting – Preferring smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed ones.

I

• Illusion of Control – Overestimating control over events.
• Impact Bias – Overestimating emotional reactions to future events.
• Imprinting – Lasting influence of early-life experiences.
• Inconsistency Bias – Applying different standards in similar situations.
• Incremental Decision-Making – Breaking big decisions into smaller steps.
• Information Bias – Seeking unnecessary information before deciding.
• Ingroup Bias – Favoring one’s own group over others.
• Instant Return – Choosing quicker returns over equal but delayed ones.

L

• Laundry List Heuristic – Judging products by the list of attributes.
• Left Digit Bias – Focusing on the first digit of a price.
• Loss Aversion – Preferring to avoid losses rather than gain benefits.

M

• Mental Accounting – Treating money differently depending on its source or intended use.
• Mental Inertia – Resisting mental change.
• Mere Token Effect – Choosing options with a small immediate benefit even if it’s irrelevant.

N

• Naive Diversification – Spreading choices evenly without considering quality.
• Negativity Bias – Giving more weight to negative information.
• Negligible Benefit Acceptance – Accepting small benefits just to tip the scales.
• Novelty Bias – Favoring new and exciting options.
• Numerosity Effect – Being swayed by the number of options or items.

O

• Open Option Bias – Preferring options that keep future choices open.
• Opportunity Cost Neglect – Ignoring the value of unchosen alternatives.
• Optimism Bias – Underestimating the risk of negative events.
• Outcome Bias – Judging decisions based on their outcomes, not the process.
• Overconfidence Effect – Overestimating one’s accuracy or abilities.
• Overoptimism Bias – Overestimating chances of success.

P

• Peak-End Rule – Judging experiences by their peak and ending moments.
• Positive Outcome Bias – Overestimating the probability of favorable outcomes.
• Power of Free – Being swayed by free offers.
• Primacy Effect – Remembering the first items in a series best.
• Priming – Exposure to certain stimuli influences later responses.
• Projection Bias – Assuming current preferences will remain unchanged.
• Projective Rule of Consistency – Acting consistently to build trust.
• Projective Satisficing – Copying successful peers’ strategies.
• Prototype Matching – Making decisions based on what a “typical” person would do.

R

• Ratio Preference Bias – Misjudging probabilities based on ratios.
• Reactance – Resisting others’ requests due to a perceived threat to freedom.
• Reciprocity – Responding in kind to others’ actions.
• Recognition Heuristic – Preferring recognized options over unrecognized ones.
• Repetition Bias – Believing repeated messages, especially from different sources.
• Retrofit Bias – Twisting new info to fit existing beliefs.
• Rhyme As Reason Effect – Judging rhyming statements as more truthful.
• Risk Aversion – Preferring lower risk over equal higher risk rewards.
• Risk Compensation – Taking more risks when feeling safer.
• Rosy Retrospection – Remembering the past more fondly than it was.
• Rule of Consistency – Repeating behaviors to maintain a consistent self-image.

S

• Salience Effect – Paying attention to information that stands out.
• Satisficing – Accepting “good enough” instead of optimal.
• Scarcity Heuristic – Valuing things more when they are scarce.
• Self Fulfilling Prophecy – Beliefs influencing actions to make them true.
• Social Proof – Following others’ behavior as a guide.
• Source Credibility Bias – Trusting or distrusting info based on its source.
• Specialist Effect – Preferring expert opinions.
• Spotlight Effect – Overestimating how much others notice you.
• Status Quo Bias – Preferring the current state over change.
• Sunk Cost Fallacy – Continuing an endeavor due to past investment.
• Support Theory – Overestimating the probability of events when described in detail.

T

• Take The Best Heuristic – Choosing the first option that’s “good enough.”
• Transactional Utility – Judging deals based on perceived value, not just outcome.

U

• Ultimate Attribution Error – Overattributing group behavior to group traits.

V

• Valence Effect – Judging situations based on whether anticipated outcomes are positive or negative.

W

• Wishful Thinking – Interpreting facts to match desired outcomes.

Z

• Zero-Risk Bias – Eliminating small risks over making bigger risk reductions elsewhere. If you want, I can also make this into a table format with columns for Heuristic, Description, and Example so it’s easier to scan and apply. That would make it a more practical reference guide.

Contexts

*