Dolores, a college freshman, has moved to a big city for the first time in her life. She is excited by the opportunity to explore the city, but is also anxious about what she read recently about street crime in one of the city’s neighborhoods. In reality, she is more at risk of harm from reckless drivers. What heuristic is she applying is this situation?

In psychology, the availability bias or availability heuristic refers to a bias that refers to the phenomenon by which people rely on the information that first comes to their mind (or that come to their minds more easily) in order to have an opinion about a subject. In other words, you rely on the information that first comes to your mind.

In this example, Dolores has moved to a big city and she has recently read about street crime in one of the city's neighborhoods, however she is more at risk of harm from reckless drivers. Since she is relying in the information that first comes to her mind (since she has been reading about it) instead of the actual risk that there is in the city, she would be using the availability heuristic.