Intro to Social Media
The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a person's mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method, or decision. This cognitive bias can lead individuals to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event based on how easily they can recall similar instances. In the context of misinformation and fact-checking, this heuristic significantly affects how people perceive the validity of information shared on social media platforms.
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