In the example above Blue encounters Red and notices that Red is bigger than him. This makes him feel afraid (affect). His fear makes him quickly decide that it is not safe to walk past Red because he believes that Red might hurt him.
The affect heuristic describes a cognitive shortcut that allows us to make quick decisions or judgments as influenced by our emotions (affect) at that time (Finucane, Alhakami, Slovic, Finucane, Peters & MacGregor, 2007). This means that our decision is affected by our emotional response to a stimulus.
An example of the affect heuristic.
Affect Heuristic
Slovic, P., Finucane, M. L., Peters, E., & MacGregor, D. G. (2007). The affect heuristic. European Journal of Operational Research, 177(3), 1333-1352.
Social Beliefs and Judgments