Availability Bias in Behavioural Investing
All of us have seen movies or have read novels wherein there are several witnesses who are describing the same crime scene.
However, each of them describes the scene in different ways. This is because their experiences are colored with their own thought processes.
This makes different people look at the same situation in different ways. This is also the case with investing.
Based on the previous experience that an investor has had, investors might view different situations differently. Behavioral finance practitioners are aware of this investor tendency. The details of this behavior have been explained in availability bias.
In this article, we will have a closer look at what the availability bias is as well as how it can impact decision making.
What is the Availability Bias?
Availability bias refers to the tendency of investors to extrapolate their personal trends and consider them to be the market reality. For instance, the business of a certain person may be profitable even during a recession.
Hence, they are likely to assume that even if the recession continues, the market will continue to rise further.
On the other hand, if a person has suffered a job loss in a growing economy, he/she is likely to believe that the entire economy is headed downwards.
Availability bias is called the availability bias because it depends upon the user being able to recall their experiences. The experiences which are most vivid or deeply experienced are the ones most readily available for decision making. This is the reason that this bias is called the availability bias.
Availability bias is the reason that an investor who may have lost money in the share markets starts to believe that the markets are excessively risky and hence avoids investing in them.
Availability bias basically explains how the beliefs of an investor can become excessively influenced by their experiences and hence can go completely out of sync with reality.
Types of Incidents Which Impact Availability Bias?
All incidents do not impact availability bias in a similar manner. Over the years, psychologists have studied and realized that there are some types of incidents that are more likely to be recalled. Some characteristics of such incidents are as follows:
How Does Availability Bias Affect Investors?
Availability bias negatively affects the interests of investors. Some of these negative effects have been listed below:
How to Avoid the Availability Bias?
Availability bias generally impacts people who track their investments too much. While it is good to keep an eye on the behavior of your investments, it is wrong to obsessively track their every moment.
The more a person pays attention to their investments, the more likely they are to make a premature and wrong decision.
The best defense against availability bias is to filter the news that we hear about our investments and act on them in a rational manner.

Authorship/Referencing - About the Author(s)
The article is Written By Prachi Juneja and Reviewed By Management Study Guide Content Team. MSG Content Team comprises experienced Faculty Member, Professionals and Subject Matter Experts. We are a ISO 2001:2015 Certified Education Provider. To Know more, click on About Us. The use of this material is free for learning and education purpose. Please reference authorship of content used, including link(s) to ManagementStudyGuide.com and the content page url.