Economics, 3rd Edition

Simulation Heuristics 

These occur where people use mental processes to establish the likely outcome 

of something. The easier it is to simulate or visualize that outcome the more likely the individual is to make 

decisions based on it. For example, if it is easy to imagine a product which makes you look good then you 

are more likely to buy it. Pharmaceutical firms know that consumers are more likely to buy and take medi-

cines that deal with known and experienced symptoms (things like headaches, strained muscles, sore 

throats and runny noses) which are easy to visualize and imagine than taking regular medicines for some-

thing like high cholesterol because it is hard to build a mental process for the effects of high cholesterol.