Which heuristic involves making judgments based on the frequency of recent events?

The availability heuristic is a cognitive shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method, or decision. This heuristic involves making judgments based on the most readily available information, which is often influenced by recent events or experiences. For instance, if someone frequently hears about airplane accidents in the news, they may overestimate the dangers of flying because those events are fresh in their memory.

In contrast, the confirmation bias reflects a tendency to favor information that confirms existing beliefs, while the representativeness heuristic involves assessing the similarity of a situation to a prototype of a category. Overconfidence is the tendency to be more confident in one's answers or solutions than is warranted. Each of these factors plays a role in decision-making and perception, but the availability heuristic is specifically concerned with how easily information comes to mind, particularly based on recent occurrences.