Recency Bias

We tend to place greater emphasis on recent events over past ones.

Description

Events that have occurred recently tend to be seen as more important than historic events. This is often just because the event is fresh in our memory as opposed to its actual importance. Given that the perceived importance of recent events will likely drop with time, recency-bias can lead to skewed perceptions and poor decision-making.

Examples

  • Employee reviews are prone to recency bias. The performance of work done most recently will disproportionally impact the final review.

  • In Law, the closing argument given by the defense is seen to have an advantage as it's the freshest in the jury's memory.