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Recognition Heuristic

"Consider the task of inferring which of two objects has a higher value on some criterion (e.g., which is faster, higher, stronger). The recognition heuristic for such tasks is simply stated: If one of two objects is recognized and the other is not, then infer that the recognized object has the higher value."
Goldstein and Gigerenzer (1999)

"Recognition heuristic: If one of two objects is recognized and the other is not, then infer that the recognized object has the higher value with respect to the criterion."
Goldstein and Gigerenzer (2002)

"According to the recognition heuristic, when an individual only recognizes one of two items, the individual will judge the recognized item to be greater in whatever dimensions are positively correlated with recognition."
Oppenheimer (2003)

"According to the recognition heuristic, when making a judgment about two items, the more easily recognized item will be considered to have a higher value."
Wikipedia (2006)

Important Papers

  1. GOLDSTEIN, Daniel G. and Gerd GIGERENZER, 2002. Models of ecological rationality: The recognition heuristic. Psychological Review, Vol. 109, No. 1, 75-90. [Cited by 54] (15.12/year)
  2. GOLDSTEIN, Daniel G. and Gerd GIGERENZER, 1999. The recognition heuristic: How Ignorance Makes Us Smart, In: GIGERENZER, Gerd, Peter M. TODD, and the ABC Research Group, Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart [Cited by 42] (6.39/year)
  3. OPPENHEIMER, Daniel M., 2003. Not so fast!(and not so frugal!): rethinking the recognition heuristic. Cognition, Volume 90, Number 1, November 2003, pp. 1-9(9). [Cited by 11] (4.28/year)

Financial Applications

  1. BOYD, Michael, 2001. On Ignorance, Intuition, and Investing: A Bear Market Test of the Recognition Heuristic. The Journal of Psychology. [Cited by 9] (1.97/year)

Bibliography