Fast and Frugal Heuristics

Definition

Fast and frugal heuristics, as defined by Gerd Gigerenzer, Peter M. Todd, and the ABC Research Group, are simple, task-specific decision strategies that are part of a decision maker's repertoire of cognitive strategies for solving judgment and decision tasks. Fast and frugal heuristics are simple to execute because they limit information search and do not involve much computation. Unlike many decision-making models in the behavioral sciences, models of fast and frugal heuristics describe not only the outcome of the decisionmaking process but also the process itself: Fast and frugal heuristics comprise simple building blocks that specify how information is searched for (search rule), when information search will be stopped (stopping rule), and how the processed information is integrated into a decision (decision rule).

The term heuristic ...