Have you ever wondered why people are afraid of flying, in case you are not one of them? Have you ever asked yourself, is flying actually more dangerous than cars or trains? The department of transport recorded 2538 road deaths for the UK in 2008. According to the Aircraft Crashes Record Office 884 people died in a plane crash the same year. Although it looks like flying is safer than driving a car more and more people are afraid of boarding a plane. Why?
The most obvious and simplest reason is the media. Aviation disasters are more likely to be broadcasted on television than a car crash where several people died. Therefore people are more exposed to pictures and reports of accidents involving a plane than a car, which furthermore results in the development of a fear of flying. These individuals formed an association between the news, flying and a plane crash. When people asses the frequency or the likelihood of a certain event by the ease with which associations come to their mind, they use the availability heuristic (Tversky & Kahneman, 1973).
Tversky and Kahneman (1973) observed that participants estimated the number of words that has r as first letter to be higher than words that have r as third letter. The same had been proofed with the letter t in a later study (Gabrielcik & Fazio, 1984). These two observations occurred because it is easier to bring words, which start with r or t to your mind. Whereas it is harder to think of words that have these two letters as their third letter.
Schwarz and his colleagues designed three experiments to proof the availability heuristic. In the first condition participants were asked to describe either 6 or 12 examples of assertive or unassertive behaviour. Schwarz and colleagues found out that the recall affected the assertiveness or unassertiveness only when the recall process was experienced as easy. Participants gave more assertive behaviour with 6 examples and more unassertive behaviour when asked to recall 12 examples.
In the second condition participants were told that in previous studies people rated certain examples as more difficult. Although participants in Schwarz and colleagues’ study received this information, their decisions were not influenced towards the reported direction.
In the third and last condition participants heard a piece of music. They were either told that the music facilitated recall in an assertive situation or that the music facilitated recall in an unassertive situation. According to previous research recall performance showed the opposite direction.
Schwarz and colleagues’ research proofs that people assess the likelihood of occurrence of an event according to the ease of which associations come to their mind. I personally think that this theory is very accurate and accounts for a lot of situations in our social life. Before I moved to London I only saw negative news about people form Pakistan on the television. After getting in contact with some of them in university, however, I made the experience that their intellect and creative potential will never be shown on television. The availability heuristic explains this stereotypical thinking, but the best way to avoid building stereotypes is to make your own experience.
