When judging the likelihood of events, what do people often rely on according to the representativeness heuristic?

The representativeness heuristic is a cognitive shortcut that people use to make judgments about the probability of an event based on how closely it resembles a typical example or prototype of that event. When individuals use this heuristic, they often assess the likelihood of an occurrence by comparing it to common prototypes or stereotypes they have in mind. For instance, someone might judge a librarian as quiet and bookish because that aligns with their stereotypical image of what a librarian is like, rather than considering other relevant statistics about librarianship.

This reliance on prototypes can sometimes lead to oversights or misjudgments, as people might ignore relevant statistical information or facts that do not fit within their established stereotypes. By favoring these mental shortcuts, individuals tend to underestimate or overestimate the actual probabilities of events based solely on how representative they are of their mental categories.