Which of the following biases involves overestimating the frequency of memorable events?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

This question centers on a well-known cognitive bias that inflates the perceived frequency of salient events.
Option 1: Availability heuristic. The core idea is that events that are memorable or recent are more easily retrieved from memory, leading people to overestimate how common they are. This aligns with the phenomenon described in the question, where striking or easily recalled events seem more frequent than they actually are.
Option 2: Confirmation bias. This bias involves favoring information that confirms preconceptions while disregarding evidence to the contrary. It affects how we interpret information, not directly how often we think certain events occur, so it doesn’t explain the overestimation of frequency due to memorable events.
Option 3: Belief perseverance. This is the tendency to cling to initial beliefs even when faced with contrary evidence. While it affects belief maintenance, it does not specifically address the mechanism by which memorable events are perceived as more common.
Option 4: Pseudoscience. This term refers to claims presented as scientific but lacking rigorous methodology. It is not a cognitive bias involved in judging the frequency of memorable events and does not describe the bias in question.
In summary, the described effect—overestimating how often memorable events occur due to ease of recall—fits the availability heuristic most closely, while the other options describe different biases that influence judgment in different ways.

2025/26/1 PSYB19-104 1 - Basics of Research Methods Exam (16 December, 11:00)

Which of the following biases involves overestimating the frequency of memorable events?

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