Editing Heuristic (section)

==Academic disciplines==
===Psychology===
{{Main|Heuristic (psychology)}}
{{Broader|Phenomenology (psychology)}}
{{See also|Decision-making}}

In [[psychology]], heuristics are simple, efficient rules, either learned or inculcated by evolutionary processes. These psychological heuristics have been proposed to explain how people make decisions, come to judgements, and solve problems. These rules typically come into play when people face complex problems or incomplete information. Researchers employ various methods to test whether people use these rules. The rules have been shown to work well under most circumstances, but in certain cases can lead to systematic errors or [[cognitive bias]]es.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gigerenzer |first=Gerd |year=1991 |title=How to Make Cognitive Illusions Disappear: Beyond "Heuristics and Biases" |url=https://library.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/ft/gg/gg_how_1991.pdf |url-status=live |journal=European Review of Social Psychology |volume=2 |pages=83–115 |citeseerx=10.1.1.336.9826 |doi=10.1080/14792779143000033 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120905042450/http://library.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/ft/gg/GG_How_1991.pdf |archive-date=5 September 2012 |access-date=14 October 2012}}</ref>

===Philosophy===
A '''heuristic device''' is used when an entity ''X'' exists to enable understanding of, or knowledge concerning, some other entity ''Y''.

A good example is a [[Physical model|model]] that, as [[Map/territory relation|it is never identical with what it models]], is a heuristic device to enable understanding of what it models. Stories, metaphors, etc., can also be termed heuristic in this sense. A classic example is the notion of [[utopia]] as described in [[Plato]]'s best-known work, ''[[Plato's Republic|The Republic]]''. This means that the "ideal city" as depicted in ''The Republic'' is not given as something to be pursued, or to present an orientation-point for development. Rather, it shows how things would have to be connected, and how one thing would lead to another (often with highly problematic results), if one opted for certain principles and carried them through rigorously.

''Heuristic'' is also often used as a [[noun]] to describe a [[rule of thumb]], procedure, or method.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Jaszczolt|first=K. M.|author-link=Katarzyna Jaszczolt|year=2006|title=Defaults in Semantics and Pragmatics|journal=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/defaults-semantics-pragmatics/|issn=1095-5054|access-date=2021-06-08|archive-date=2021-06-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608040450/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/defaults-semantics-pragmatics/|url-status=live}}</ref> Philosophers of science have emphasised the importance of heuristics in creative thought and the construction of scientific theories.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Frigg|first1=Roman|author1-link=Roman Frigg|last2=Hartmann|first2=Stephan|author2-link=Stephan Hartmann|year=2006|title=Models in Science|journal=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/models-science/|issn=1095-5054|access-date=2021-06-08|archive-date=2021-06-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210603222449/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/models-science/|url-status=live}}</ref> Seminal works include [[Karl Popper]]'s ''[[The Logic of Scientific Discovery]]'' and others by [[Imre Lakatos]],<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kiss|first=Olga|year=2006|title=Heuristic, Methodology or Logic of Discovery? Lakatos on Patterns of Thinking|journal=Perspectives on Science|volume=14|issue=3|pages=302–317|doi=10.1162/posc.2006.14.3.302|s2cid=57559578|doi-access=free}}</ref> [[Lindley Darden]], and [[William C. Wimsatt]].

===Law===
In [[legal theory]], especially in the theory of [[law and economics]], heuristics are used in the [[law]] when [[case method|case-by-case analysis]] would be impractical, insofar as "practicality" is defined by the interests of a governing body.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Gigerenzer|editor-first1=Gerd|editor-last2=Engel|editor-first2=Christoph|year=2007|title=Heuristics and the Law|location=Cambridge, MA|publisher=[[MIT Press]]|isbn=978-0-262-07275-5}}</ref>

The present securities regulation regime largely assumes that all investors act as perfectly rational persons. In truth, actual investors face cognitive limitations from biases, heuristics, and framing effects. For instance, in all states in the United States the [[legal drinking age]] for unsupervised persons is 21 years, because it is argued that people need to be mature enough to make decisions involving the risks of [[alcohol (drug)|alcohol]] consumption. However, assuming people mature at different rates, the specific age of 21 would be too late for some and too early for others. In this case, the somewhat arbitrary delineation is used because it is impossible or impractical to tell whether an individual is sufficiently mature for society to trust them with that kind of responsibility. Some proposed changes, however, have included the completion of an alcohol education course rather than the attainment of 21 years of age as the criterion for legal alcohol possession. This would put youth alcohol policy more on a case-by-case basis and less on a heuristic one, since the completion of such a course would presumably be voluntary and not uniform across the population.

The same reasoning applies to [[patent law]]. [[Patent]]s are justified on the grounds that inventors must be protected so they have incentive to invent. It is therefore argued that it is in society's best interest that inventors receive a temporary government-granted [[monopoly]] on their idea, so that they can recoup investment costs and make economic profit for a limited period. In the United States, the length of this temporary monopoly is 20 years from the date the patent application was filed, though the monopoly does not actually begin until the application has matured into a patent. However, like the drinking age problem above, the specific length of time would need to be different for every product to be efficient. A 20-year term is used because it is difficult to tell what the number should be for any individual patent. More recently, some, including [[University of North Dakota]] law professor Eric E. Johnson, have argued that patents in different kinds of industries – such as [[software patent]]s – should be protected for different lengths of time.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Johnson|first=Eric E.|year=2006|title=Calibrating Patent Lifetimes|url=http://www.eejlaw.com/writings/Johnson_Calibrating_Patent_Lifetimes.pdf|journal=Santa Clara Computer & High Technology Law Journal|volume=22|pages=269–314|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005052244/http://www.eejlaw.com/writings/Johnson_Calibrating_Patent_Lifetimes.pdf|archive-date=2011-10-05}}</ref>

===Artificial intelligence===

The [[bias–variance tradeoff]] gives insight into describing the less-is-more strategy.<ref>{{cite journal
| last1 = Gigerenzer
| first1 = G.
| last2 = Gaissmaier
| first2 = W.
| date = 2011
| title = Heuristic Decision Making
| url = https://pure.mpg.de/rest/items/item_2099042_4/component/file_2099041/content
| journal = Annual Review of Psychology
| volume = 62
| issue = 
| pages = 451–482
| doi = 10.1146/annurev-psych-120709-145346
| pmid = 21126183
| access-date = 6 May 2024
| quote =This 'bias-variance dilemma' helps to explicate the rationality of simple heuristics and how less can be more (Brighton & Gigerenzer 2008, Gigerenzer & Brighton 2009).| hdl = 11858/00-001M-0000-0024-F16D-5
| hdl-access = free
}}</ref> A [[Heuristic (computer science)|heuristic]] can be used in [[artificial intelligence]] systems while searching a [[solution space]]. The heuristic is derived by using some function that is put into the system by the designer, or by adjusting the weight of branches based on how likely each branch is to lead to a [[Goal node (computer science)|goal node]].

===Behavioural economics===
Heuristics refers to the cognitive shortcuts that individuals use to simplify decision-making processes in economic situations. [[Behavioral economics]] is a field that integrates insights from psychology and economics to better understand how people make decisions.

Anchoring and adjustment is one of the most extensively researched heuristics in behavioural economics. Anchoring is the tendency of people to make future judgements or conclusions based too heavily on the original information supplied to them. This initial knowledge functions as an anchor, and it can influence future judgements even if the anchor is entirely unrelated to the decisions at hand. Adjustment, on the other hand, is the process through which individuals make gradual changes to their initial judgements or conclusions.

[[Anchoring and adjustment]] has been observed in a wide range of decision-making contexts, including financial decision-making, consumer behavior, and negotiation. Researchers have identified a number of strategies that can be used to mitigate the effects of anchoring and adjustment, including providing multiple anchors, encouraging individuals to generate alternative anchors, and providing cognitive prompts to encourage more deliberative decision-making.

Other heuristics studied in behavioral economics include the [[representativeness heuristic]], which refers to the tendency of individuals to categorize objects or events based on how similar they are to typical examples,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Bhatia|first=Sudeep|title=Conceptualizing and studying linguistic representations across multiple levels of analysis: The case of L2 processing research|journal=Cognitive Science|date=2015|volume=39|pages=122–148|url=https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~bhatiasu/Bhatia%202015%20CogSci%20PP.pdf|accessdate=2023-04-20|archive-date=2023-06-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230614203450/https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~bhatiasu/Bhatia%202015%20CogSci%20PP.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> and the [[availability heuristic]], which refers to the tendency of individuals to judge the likelihood of an event based on how easily it comes to mind.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Dale|first=Sarah|title=Heuristics and biases: The science of decision-making|journal=Business Information Review|date=2015|volume=32|issue=2|pages=93–99|doi=10.1177/0266382115592536}}</ref>