Availability bias

Availability bias, also known as the availability heuristic, is a cognitive bias that leads people to give greater weight to information that comes to mind easily, even when it is not the most representative or relevant. Our judgement is often influenced by recent experiences, striking events or situations with a strong emotional impact.

 

In Human Resources, this bias can lead managers to evaluate an employee based only on their most recent performance, make hiring decisions influenced by previous experiences, or overestimate issues that have received significant attention instead of considering all the available data.

 

Availability bias occurs when we use information that is most readily available in our memory as a reference for interpreting a situation. The fact that an event is easy to remember does not necessarily mean that it is frequent, representative, or decisive. However, our minds may give it more weight than it actually deserves when making a decision.