{"version":"1.0","provider_name":"Mindletic","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.mindletic.com\/lt","author_name":"Ieva Vaitkeviciute","author_url":"https:\/\/www.mindletic.com\/lt\/author\/ievav\/","title":"Heuristics: The Adaptive Toolbox of Humans - Mindletic Blog","type":"rich","width":600,"height":338,"html":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"W6yfrFSpEL\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mindletic.com\/lt\/blog-heuristics-the-adaptive-toolbox\/\">Heuristics: The Adaptive Toolbox of Humans<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mindletic.com\/lt\/blog-heuristics-the-adaptive-toolbox\/embed\/#?secret=W6yfrFSpEL\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" title=\"&#8220;Heuristics: The Adaptive Toolbox of Humans&#8221; &#8212; Mindletic\" data-secret=\"W6yfrFSpEL\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script>\n\/*! This file is auto-generated *\/\n!function(d,l){\"use strict\";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&\"undefined\"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!\/[^a-zA-Z0-9]\/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),c=new RegExp(\"^https?:$\",\"i\"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display=\"none\";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute(\"style\"),\"height\"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):\"link\"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute(\"src\")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener(\"message\",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll(\"iframe.wp-embedded-content\"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute(\"data-secret\"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+=\"#?secret=\"+t,e.setAttribute(\"data-secret\",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:\"ready\",secret:t},\"*\")},!1)))}(window,document);\n\/\/# sourceURL=https:\/\/www.mindletic.com\/wp-includes\/js\/wp-embed.min.js\n<\/script>","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/new.mindletic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Mindletic-blog-abstract-circles-visual.png","thumbnail_width":2461,"thumbnail_height":2598,"description":"Heuristics: The Adaptive Toolbox of Humans As we are faced with certain situations where decisions must be made, we thoroughly think&nbsp; through all the pros and cons. However, sometimes we are short on time, thus we must react&nbsp; quickly to the knowledge that is available at hand. Accordingly, system 1 or system 2, which the&nbsp; brain uses to process information, are activated depending on the available time frame. System 1&nbsp; functions quickly and automatically with bare effort and is in general uncontrollable by us. System&nbsp; 2 functions slowly and evokes our analytical reasoning, it will filter out unreasonable automatic&nbsp; instincts to lead you to the best choice. From a biological perspective, our survival instincts come before thinking through the rational&nbsp; decision-making strategy, therefore, system 1 is always at the front. Since system 1 is fast and&nbsp; automatic it tends to make shortcuts, during which a certain part of the information is left aside&nbsp; when making a decision. These shortcuts are called heuristics, it saves mental energy of system 2&nbsp; and is often used to solve a variety of decision problems involving choice, categorization,&nbsp; estimation, elimination and more. Sometimes it is also referred to as intuition, gut feeling,&nbsp; \u2018rule-of-thumb\u2019, or common sense. Most common heuristics .Availability heuristic&nbsp; It describes our tendency to utilize the information that comes to mind quickly and easily when&nbsp; making decisions about the future. One single moment that happened to you in the past could&nbsp; influence your decision. For example, you went to a job interview, and the interviewers seemed quite&nbsp; disrespectful, you will likely opt-out from applying to their open positions for the next time.&nbsp; .Representativeness heuristic&nbsp; It involves making a decision by comparing the situation at hand with the most representative&nbsp; mental example. Let\u2019s say you meet a new person, who reminds you of your good old friend, you will&nbsp; immediately consider that he or she is kind and trustworthy.&nbsp; .Affect heuristic&nbsp; It encompasses present emotions, which highly influence our choices. The researchers have shown&nbsp; that the more positive we are about a decision, the more likely we are to think that it will bring high&nbsp; benefit and low risk. Whereas, if we feel sad, we will most likely think about the downsides only.&nbsp; .Anchoring heuristics&nbsp; Psychologists have found that people tend to rely too heavily on the very first piece of information&nbsp; they learn which immediately influences their decisions. Think about flying and driving. According&nbsp; to statistics flying is the safest mode of transportation. Whereas the chance of ending up in an&nbsp; accident when driving is higher. Yet, we take our rides daily without any fear, but sit and mumble&nbsp; small prayers once inside of an airplane. Overall, there are some negative sides of heuristics, as it reduces mental effort and accuracy. It&nbsp; could also lead to prejudice. If we only would use mental shortcuts to classify people, we would&nbsp; miss the most important information and create stereotypes that would start stigmatizing society.&nbsp; Of course, we could agree that not all decisions from our day-to-day activities should be based on&nbsp; rational thinking, however, it is evident that heuristics are considered a provoking source of&nbsp; judgmental errors. Our advice would be to take a little more time to reach a certain decision, allow&nbsp; system 2 to activate, and evaluate your choices thoroughly. Exercises for practicing heuristics #1 \/\/ Create a pros and cons list When faced with uncertainty, do not be afraid to take a piece of paper and write down all that you think about a certain issue. Seeing the drawbacks and advantages physically would help you to see which decision would be the most appealing. #2 \/\/ Activate your system 2 Activate your brain by engaging in logical thinking involved activities to increase your critical thinking. Reading is one of those beneficial brain exercises, here is a book about systems 1 and 2: https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/11468377-thinking-fast-and-slow. #3 \/\/ Get enough sleep Do not let your emotions get in your way of decision-making, make sure to rest enough. Here\u2019s the reason why: https:\/\/hbr.org\/2020\/09\/why-you-should-choose-sleep-over-work. 4# \/\/ Ask for help Some decisions may be hard to make alone, and you may not see the entire picture clearly. Take a step further and analyze the tough decisions with a professional in the Mindletic app to gain some extra clarity. Choose the topic of interest and book a meeting now. Copyright \u00a9 | All rights reserved"}