In decision making judging a sample on the basis of similarity and random looking appearance is known as

The correct answer is A) Representativeness heuristic. Kahneman and Tversky (1974) described this shortcut: we judge the probability that something belongs to a category by how closely it resembles our image of that category, and we tend to ignore base rates and sample size. A sample that looks typical or 'random' gets trusted as representative of the whole.

• B) Availability heuristic is wrong. It judges likelihood by how easily examples come to mind, such as recent news or vivid incidents, not by resemblance to a category.
• C) Anchoring heuristic is wrong. It means estimates get pulled toward an initial figure, even an irrelevant one.
• D) Adjustment heuristic is wrong. It means starting from an anchor and adjusting insufficiently. It is usually paired with anchoring and has nothing to do with similarity.

This sits within the behavioural economics and decision-making part of the syllabus. For Mains, it helps explain stereotyping in policing, recruitment and welfare targeting, where officers judge individuals by how well they fit a profile.

Trap: Aspirants often pick availability because 'random' sounds like a sampling idea. The test is whether the judgment rests on resemblance to a prototype (representativeness) or on ease of recall (availability).