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The similarity heuristic

Read, Daniel; Grushka-Cockayne, Yael

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Authors

Daniel Read

Yael Grushka-Cockayne



Abstract

Decision makers are often called on to make snap judgments using fast-and- frugal decisionrules called cognitive heuristics. Although early research into cognitive heuristicsemphasized their limitations, more recent research has focused on their high level ofaccuracy. In this paper we investigate the performance a subset of the representativenessheuristic which we call the similarity heuristic.Decision makers who use it judge the likelihood that an instance is a member of one category rather than another by the degree towhich it is similar to others in that category. We provide a mathematical model of theheuristic and test it experimentally in a trinomial environment. The similarity heuristic turnsout to be a reliable and accurate choice rule and both choice and response time data suggest itis also how choices are made.

Citation

Read, D., & Grushka-Cockayne, Y. (2007). The similarity heuristic

Publication Date Mar 20, 2007
Deposit Date Dec 7, 2012
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Series Title Durham University Business School Economics Finance Accounting Working Papers
Keywords Heuristics and biases, Fast-and-frugal heuristics, Similarity, Representative design, Base-rate neglect, Bayesian inference.
Publisher URL http://www.dur.ac.uk/business/faculty/working-papers/

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