Heuristics are mental shortcuts that help people make decisions and solve problems quickly. They simplify complex tasks by using rules of thumb, past experiences, or common sense. While heuristics can lead to efficient decision-making, they may also result in biases or errors. Common examples of heuristics include the availability heuristic, where individuals rely on immediate examples that come to mind, and the representativeness heuristic, which involves judging the likelihood of an event based on how closely it resembles a typical case. These strategies are useful in everyday life but can sometimes lead to inaccurate conclusions.