Tuesday, April 10, 2018

What are Heuristics and why we use them

            In problem solving, individuals like to use the resources they are surrounded by to develop a solution. Sometimes the resources do not have all the necessary details needed to make a decision, however, in some situations, it could be enough to get the problem solved. These resources can be known as heuristics. Heuristics can be viewed as adaptive tools individuals use that can ignore all the facts needed to make fast and sometimes frugal decisions that may seem accurate and robust under conditions of uncertainty, an example is quick problem solving (Mousavi & Gigerenzer, 2017). Individuals use heuristics daily and this can be the reason some of the decisions are robust. When danger is a component of a problem there is not much time to think. Using heuristics or the adaptive tools individuals have stored can mean a matter of life or death. Using these adaptive tools avoid having to fine tune every detail or parameter of a problem or situation which can lead to large estimation errors in changing environmental conditions (Mousavi & Gigerenzer, 2017). The use of heuristics is neither a good or bad thing, they are simply necessary based on the problem which they are being used to solve. The more functional the match is between the heuristic being used and the environment, the higher the degree of ecological rationality of the heuristic (Mousavi & Gigerenzer, 2017). How can you use heuristics in the workplace?

Mousavi, S., & Gigerenzer, G. (2017). Heuristics are Tools for Uncertainty. Homo 

Oeconomicus34(4), 361-379. doi:10.1007/s41412-017-0058-z

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