Heuristic Processing

Definition

Heuristic processing refers to a mode of thinking that is based on simple decision rules, or if-then associations, that people use to judge the quality or nature of an object. For example, in deciding whether to vote for a particular candidate, a person might rely on the opinion of an expert (using the heuristic “if expert, then agree”), or on the prevailing view of friends and family (“if there's a consensus, then assume correctness”). Heuristic processing is most likely to influence people's attitudes when their motivation to think about something is low (e.g., when they do not care very much about the outcome of an election) and when their ability to think carefully is constrained (e.g., when they are stressed out or pressed for time). It is a relatively easy and efficient way to make judgments, but it can also lead to mistakes.

Background and History

In the 1970s and 1980s, persuasion researchers joined other social psychologists in focusing on the cognitive processes underlying the effects they studied. In other words, they wanted to know not just what variables cause attitudes to change but also why and how attitude change occurs. At first, most major theories of persuasion assumed that attitude change always occurs as a result of careful thought. This suggests that messages evoking positive thoughts about an issue will be persuasive, whereas messages that lead to negative thoughts will be unpersuasive.

In the 1980s, two dual-process models of persuasion were developed: the elaboration likelihood model, developed by Richard Petty and John Cacioppo, and the heuristic-systematic model, developed by Shelly Chaiken. These dual-process models recognized that careful, effortful thinking about issues only occurs when people are both motivated and able to process information in such a systematic way. Otherwise, these theorists reasoned, attitude change will occur based on less meaningful, more efficient ways of thinking about information.

To describe such a way of thinking, Shelly Chaiken looked to another area of social psychology, where Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky had popularized the term heuristic in their studies of biases in human decision making. Here, a heuristic describes a welllearned (and therefore quite efficient) rule of thumb that helps people solve a problem or form a judgment but which leads to biases or errors when applied in the wrong circumstances. In Chaiken's heuristic-systematic model of persuasion, heuristic processing describes attitude change that occurs based on people's use of these well-learned decision rules. The distinction made in the heuristic-systematic and elaboration likelihood models between two kinds of information processing (the effortful, reflective, systematic mode and the quick, associative, relatively automatic heuristic mode) has become important in many other areas of social and cognitive psychology.

Importance and Consequences

Heuristic processing can influence attitude change in two major ways. First, when motivation and ability to think about information are both low, heuristic processing directly influences attitude change. In such situations, people tend to depend on heuristic cues (such as the likeability, attractiveness, and expertise of the communicator) in forming their opinions and judgments. This way of thinking about information is often very useful and efficient. For instance, it saves people a lot of time and effort to assume that experts are typically correct, and it allows them to make (often good) decisions about important issues such as whether to take a medicine or what kind of cars are safe to drive. However, experts are not always right, and trusting them can sometimes lead people to make decisions different (and poorer) than the ones they would have made had they considered all the information for themselves. For example, diet fads are frequently endorsed by “experts” but often turn out to be bogus or downright harmful.

...