representative heuristic

The representativeness heuristic is a mental shortcut where people judge the likelihood of something based on how much it resembles a typical example or stereotype. For instance, if someone is dressed in a lab coat, you might assume they are a scientist, because that matches your idea of a scientist's appearance. While this can make quick judgments easier, it might also lead to errors if the resemblance isn’t a reliable indicator of true likelihood or category. Essentially, we often rely on how much something seems to fit our expectations rather than on actual statistical information.