One pervasive source of cognitive bias is the way our brains rely on automatic, unconscious mental shortcuts—known as cognitive heuristics—when processing information. After explaining the nature of heuristics, this text digs more deeply into two heuristics in particular: the availability heuristic and the representative heuristic. This deeper exploration illustrates and reinforces the idea that, while heuristics are valuable tools for arriving at initial assessments, the fact that they only work well under certain circumstances should make you cautious about placing too much confidence in your heuristic thinking.