Take-the-best heuristic
The take-the-best heuristic is a mental strategy ( heuristic ) for making decisions between known alternatives. The term was coined by Gerd Gigerenzer in the 1990s .
According to the take-the-best heuristic, a ranking of the relevant properties is created during a decision process. Then the alternatives are compared sequentially in descending order - in a "simple decision tree", starting with the most important characteristic - until one characteristic shows a relevant difference. As soon as this relevant difference has been determined, an appropriate decision is made; all other features are neglected. The first property that shows a difference is at the same time the best property for a decision due to the hierarchy created previously.
example
To explain this heuristic, Gigerenzer uses the example of the search for the best school for a son; there are two specific educational institutions to choose from. The aim is to achieve the "best possible support [of the child] by the teachers". There are predictors for this criterion, such as the average grade of the graduates, the number of study groups, the number of missed lessons or the class size. The predictors are ranked, for example the grade point average is the most important predictor, followed by the study groups, the absent hours and the class size. If the grades achieved do not show a significant difference, the second piece of information is considered, the number of study groups. If there is a difference here, this predictor is discriminatory for the alternatives. Decision making is terminated after considering this predictor.
literature
- Popular science
- Martha Michalkiewicz: How Heuristics Help Us Make Decisions , Inquisitive Mind -Website.
- Specialist literature
- Gerd Gigerenzer: Gut decisions: the intelligence of the unconscious and the power of intuition , Goldmann Verlag , 2008. ISBN 978-3-442-15503-3
Individual evidence
- ↑ Martha Michalkiewicz: in-mind.org/glossary/letter_t#Take-the-Best_Heuristik , the take-the-best heuristic in Inquisitive Mind . Retrieved March 1, 2018.
- ^ A b Reinhard Beyer , Rebecca Gerlach: Language and Thinking , 2nd Edition. Springer Nature , 2018. ISBN 978-3-658-17487-3 . Page 150–152.