Download pdf
Research on the Application of Availability Bias on Decision Making
- 1 University of Sheffield
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The availability bias is a common cognitive bias that influences decision-making in individuals. The basis for the bias is the availability heuristic, which involves judging the likelihood of an event based on the ease with which examples come to mind. The article examines the definition of the availability heuristic, its impact on decision-making, and its application to purchasing decisions. The availability bias can have a significant effect on decision-making, and it is evident in marketplace activities. Therefore, this study examines the impact of usability bias on decision making through two research studies that demonstrating the influence of availability bias on decision-making. According to the results of the analysis, the availability bias can lead to a certain cognitive bias, which can affect the decision to buy or invest in a product.
Keywords
availability bias, investment decision, purchasing decision, decision making
[1]. Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science, 185(4157), 1124–1131. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.185.4157.1124.
[2]. Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
[3]. Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1973). Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability. Cognitive Psychology, 5(2), 207–232.
[4]. Kahneman, D., Slovic, P., & Tversky, A. (1982). Judgment under uncertainty : heuristics and biases. Cambridge University Press.
[5]. Gabrielcik, A., & Fazio, R. H. (1984). Priming and Frequency Estimation. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 10(1), 85–89. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167284101009 .
[6]. Chaiken, S., & Ledgerwood, A. (2012). A theory of heuristic and systematic information processing. In P. A. Van Lange, A. W. Kruglanski, & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of theories in social psychology (pp. 246–266). London, England: Sage Publications.
[7]. Nazlan, N. H., Tanford, S. and Montgomery, R. (2018) ‘The effect of availability heuristics in online consumer reviews’, Journal of consumer behaviour, 17(5), pp. 449–460.
[8]. Ram K. P., & Manoj K. J. (2014). Consumer buying decisions models: A descriptive study.
[9]. Engel, J.F., Blackwell, R.D & Miniard, P.W. (1995) Consumer Behavior.
[10]. Fang, H. “Chevy”, Siau, K. L., Memili, E., & Dou, J. (2019). Cognitive Antecedents of Family Business Bias in Investment Decisions: A Commentary on “Risky Decisions and the Family Firm Bias: An Experimental Study based on Prospect Theory” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 43(2), 409–416. https://doi.org/10.1177/1042258718796073.
[11]. Hammond J. S., Keeney R. L., Raiffa H. (1998) The hidden traps in decision making. Harvard Business Review 76(5): 47–58. PubMed.
[12]. Pachur, T., Hertwig, R. and Steinmann, F., 2012. How do people judge risks: Availability heuristic, affect heuristic, or both?. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 18(3), p.314.
[13]. O’Connor, E. L., Sims, L. and White, K. M. (2017) ‘Ethical food choices: Examining people’s Fair Trade purchasing decisions’, Food quality and preference, 60, pp. 105–112.
[14]. Daga, R. and Andi Jenni Indriakati. (2022). ‘Religiosity, Social and Psychological Factors on Purchase Decisions and Consumer Loyalty’, Jurnal manajemen, 26(3), pp. 469–491.
[15]. Lee, E.-B., Kim, J., & Lee, S.-G. (2017). Predicting customer churn in mobile industry using data mining technology. Industrial Management+Data Systems, 117(1), 90–109.
[16]. Pool, V. K., Stoffman, N., & Yonker, S. E. (2012). No Place Like Home: Familiarity in Mutual Fund Manager Portfolio Choice. The Review of Financial Studies, 25(8), 2563–2599.
Cite this article
Wang,Z. (2023). Research on the Application of Availability Bias on Decision Making. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media,22,60-64.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Disclaimer/Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
About volume
Volume title: Proceedings of the International Conference on Global Politics and Socio-Humanities
© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who
publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this
series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published
version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial
publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and
during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See
Open access policy for details).