The Availability Heuristic

The Availability Heuristic:
The Link Between Misinformation and Fear

Rachel Scott
Salem College
PSY130: Social Psychology
Professor M. Griggs
11/19/15

The Availability Heuristic:
The Link Between Misinformation and Fear
Introduction
When asked to state the source of their fears, people often find themselves unable to pinpoint where it began (1). In the age of the internet and various social media, misinformation is highly disseminated throughout the globe (5). Copious amounts of research have been conducted concerning misinformation and risk assessment as separate studies, however, there is an overlooked variable that could connect these two factors—the availability heuristic. In this context, the availability heuristic operates

Sensationalism is their goal. As a result the media publishes events that are more dramatic and evocative to gain and engage a wider array of people. Shootings or violent murders are more appealing to viewers as opposed to the more frequent fatalities due to different Cancers (14). Consequently, these types of events are more commonly disseminated despite the fact that less exciting, everyday news are more commonplace. Due to the frequency in which people come into contact with this information they are more inclined to believe that more people die in car accidents more than they die from lung cancer (14). When events are sensationalized or popularized and appear on every newspaper, TV screen, and webpage—even if they are rare—people assume their occurrence to be frequent

cognitive heuristic in which a decision maker relies upon knowledge that is readily available rather than examine other alternatives or procedures.
Activates and perpetuates aggressive schemas
Primes the schemas related to
Desensitization to
Anxiety or arousal provoking

Priming is an increased sensitivity and reactivity to a particular schema due to a recent experience or exposure to a stimulus. This exposure brings a specific schema, mental shortcut, to the mind of an individual. This, in turn, indirectly and directly affects the individual’s decisions, judgements, and actions.

For example, a scary movie can act as the priming event, inducing one’s fear and making them wary of noises in their house that, under other circumstances, they would recognize as normal and quite commonplace. Instead of using a normal, everyday schema (i.e. the regular house noises) to interpret the sound as, watching the scary movie primes a completely different schema. Attributing the noises to an intruder becomes significantly more successful, changing your interpretation of the