Decision Making( Heuristics)

Heuristics are simple rules of thumbs for problem solving that follow a logic that is quite different from consequential logic. They have long been regarded, as an inferior technique for decision making that is the source of irrational decision behavior. Recently, decision making researchers have demonstrated that some heuristics are highly efficient and can compete with complex decision models in some application domains

Heuristic principle is a method of decision making that proceeds along an empirical lines, using rules of thumb, to find solutions or answers (Stoner & Freeman, 1992, p. 259). In politics, heuristics defined as shortcuts voters use to decide between candidates (Allen & Wilson, 2009). Heuristics can speed up decision making, but they are fallible if individuals rely too heavily or taint them with their own biases. There are two advantages of employing heuristics in decision making: (1) heuristics have reasonable rationales, so they generally produce correct results, (2) they save enormous amounts of time for the decision makers (Stoner & Freeman, 1992, p. 262). This heuristic enables us to be rational actors in many situations. However, it fails miserably when the consequences turn out to be much different from what we anticipated. In the latter circumstances, the rational actor may well become the rational fool.