What affect heuristics have to do with trust, purchasing decisions and crises

Steffen Schulz

Published on May 16, 2023

Imagine you see two hotels online for your vacation. Both have good reviews, a similar location and the same price.

The first one looks high quality. The pictures show sunsets, happy couples, white sheets.

The second lacks warmth and atmosphere. The colors are cooler, the faces neutral.

Although the facts are the same, you opt for the first hotel. Not because it is objectively better, but because it feels better.

Your gut says: safe, beautiful, trustworthy. Your head might have compared, but your gut was quicker.

This is how the Affect heuristics. Emotions make a pre-selection even before you consciously weigh things up. And not just when traveling, but also when voting, buying or donating.

What exactly is the affect heuristic?

Affect heuristics refers to a mental shortcut in which feelings serve as a basis for decision-making. Instead of analyzing soberly, you make intuitive judgments based on what feels good, dangerous, familiar or likeable.

The term goes back to the research of Paul Slovic and Daniel Kahneman back. Both investigated how people make decisions under uncertainty, especially when there is a lack of time, information or cognitive capacity.

Kahneman's model of two systems of thought provides the framework for this:

System 1 thinks quickly, automatically, emotionally.
System 2 thinks slowly, consciously, analytically.

The affect heuristic is a typical expression of System 1 thinking. It enables lightning-fast reactions by using emotions as a standard of evaluation. If you like a product, a politician exudes confidence or a situation seems frightening, a feeling immediately arises and this feeling acts as an internal evaluation label.

👉 This does not mean that feelings are irrational. On the contrary: they help us to categorize complex situations. But they can also be deceptive, especially when media, language or images deliberately emotionalize.

How affect heuristics influence our decisions

Affect heuristics work quietly but consistently. They don't change the fact that you make decisions - but how. As soon as you emotionally evaluate a situation, this feeling colors your risk assessment, your weighing of benefits and ultimately your action.

💡An example:
Many people consider the risk of a terrorist attack to be higher than the risk of cardiovascular disease. Not because they know the figures wrongly, but because the thought of terror triggers fear. While heart problems seem abstract and less emotional. It is precisely this emotional charge that makes the risk more tangible, but not more realistic.

The same principle applies in everyday life:

Medicine: Patients often fear rare side effects more than the actual course of the disease.
Politics: buzzwords such as "flood", "crisis" or "threat" generate emotions and thus influence voting behavior.
Climate communication: A melting glacier in fast motion has more impact than any figure on CO₂ emissions.

What all these cases have in common: Feelings take over the function of facts. If something "feels wrong", it seems more dangerous. If something "exudes confidence", it automatically appears to be the better choice.

👉 This does not rule out a rational decision-making process, but it often comes too late. The decision is already made before you can justify it.

Typical examples from everyday life & marketing

One look at the reviews is enough: "Looks great, feels high quality. I would buy it again in a heartbeat."

Such statements have a stronger effect than sober facts. Even before the technical details are read, the feeling is already positive.

Emotions take over the preliminary decision and this is exactly what the affect heuristic shows in very different contexts:

Purchase decisions:
Products from brands with a likeable appearance automatically appear more trustworthy. They can be more expensive because the price is emotionally justified.
Ratings & Reviews:
Personally formulated experience reports with enthusiasm or disappointment have a stronger influence on perception than factual information.
Political communication:
Terms such as "imposition", "turning point" and "responsibility" generate emotions even before the actual content is understood.
Media & News:
Individual fates, floods of images and emotional language control how risks are assessed. The reaction is usually immediate - and sticks.

A classic: fear of flying vs. driving:
Although flying is objectively safer, it seems riskier. The reason lies in the imagery and the emotional charge created by media portrayals. Emotions dominate the assessment, not statistics.

🛎️ Practical case: Two advertisements for the same product

Display A: "Manufactured with state-of-the-art technology"

Display B: " "Loved by over 10,000 satisfied customers - since 2015"

Variant B is more convincing. Not through facts, but through emotional trust.

Targeted use of affect heuristics in marketing

Emotions decide faster than arguments. If you focus marketing on this effect, you can increase attention, strengthen trust and trigger buying impulses. And without being manipulative.

1. set emotional anchors
The first impression counts. Images, colors and headlines create a feeling that shapes the subsequent impression. Instead of purely functional messages, emotional priming works much more effectively. A smile in the picture, a warm color scheme or a sentence such as "Finally sleeping through the night again" create immediate resonance.

2. charge language with emotion
Words trigger associations. "Robust workmanship" sounds sober. "Feels valuable" activates a feeling. If you use emotional terms, you directly address System 1 - without having to be rationally obvious.

3. clever use of testimonials & social proof
"Other people think it's good" has a stronger effect than any technical argument. Especially when assessments are not purely fact-based, but formulated emotionally: "I was skeptical at first - but now I don't want anything else."

4. think UX design emotionally
Call-to-action elements, color choices and microinteractions should not only work, but also convey a good feeling. A warm button color with a personal appeal ("Start now") has a different effect than a grey "Continue".

✅ Checklist: Affect heuristics in conversion optimization

Does the first impression start with an emotional impulse?
Are the imagery and color scheme emotionally enhancing?
Do headlines use emotional keywords?
Are there authentic evaluations with an emotional tone?
Is the call-to-action intuitive, activating and appealing?

The limits and risks of affect heuristics

Emotions can simplify decisions - but they can also distort them. Because what feels right doesn't always have to be right. This is precisely the dark side of the affect heuristic.

1. distortion due to media emotionalization
News formats, social media and campaigns specifically focus on emotionally charged content. Dramatic images, personal stories or terms with a strong impact (e.g. "scandal", "crisis", "rescue") activate immediate reactions. As a result, topics are overrated or perceived in a distorted way because the emotion has a stronger effect than the content.

2. wrong decisions based on gut feeling
When emotional judgment overrides the facts, misjudgements are inevitable. This can be seen in exaggerated consumer behaviour, political polarization or trust in false promises. Emotions may be quick to judge - but not always to our advantage.

3. ethical boundaries in marketing
Emotional appeals in marketing are legitimate - as long as they are honest. Anyone who deliberately appeals to fears without providing any substance is not acting cleverly, but irresponsibly. An example: the claim "More security for your family", without any factual evidence, plays on a need for protection in order to artificially build up pressure. Such strategies do not belong in credible marketing.

⚖️ This is not how marketing should work:

An insurance company advertises with the promise "Because your family deserves to be safe". The slogan appeals to a strong need for protection, but suggests a level of security that is not covered by the product.

Emotional triggers without substance do not create trust. If you want to steer people through emotions, you also need the facts to support the emotion.

Comparison: affect heuristic, availability heuristic, and anchor heuristic

The affect heuristic is not the only mental shortcut that people use to make decisions. It is part of a series of other cognitive heuristics that are similarly fast but based on different mechanisms. If you can tell them apart, you can better understand when each one works and how it is reflected in behavior.

A comparison of three central heuristics:

Heuristics	What controls them	Example
Affect heuristics	Decisions based on feelings	A product appears trustworthy because it is well designed and evokes positive emotions.
Availability heuristic	Decisions based on memorability	People overestimate the risk of a shark attack because they have recently seen a movie about it.
Anchor heuristics	Decisions based on initial values	A number in the first offer (e.g. "only € 399") influences the evaluation of all subsequent prices.

Each of these heuristics runs automatically as soon as System 1 becomes active. They replace complex analyses with intuitive judgments. This is often efficient, but not always accurate.

🎯The decisive factor is: The affect heuristic relies first on emotion, not on knowledge or logic. Compared to the availability or anchor heuristic, it is more direct and immediate and therefore particularly effective in emotional contexts such as advertising, crises or personal relationships.

Conclusion: When affect heuristics help and when they become critical

Emotions are not disruptive factors, but powerful tools. Affect heuristics show how strongly emotions influence thinking: quickly, intuitively, often efficiently. In everyday life, this helps to evaluate complex situations without getting bogged down in analysis. In marketing, it can build trust, provide orientation and make decisions easier.

But this is precisely where the responsibility lies. Because those who are emotionally convincing also ensure that the emotional message has substance. Otherwise, trust becomes deception - and impact becomes manipulation.

When the affect heuristic is helpful:

When quick decisions under uncertainty are required
In situations where information is missing or overwhelming
The first impression, which should provide orientation
When emotions are authentic and supportive

When caution is advised:

When feelings are deliberately instrumentalized
For decisions with long-term or irreversible consequences
When content is emotionalized but not factually substantiated
When communication only simulates trust

The affect heuristic cannot be switched off. But it can be reflected upon. If you recognize when emotions are the deciding factor, you can make more conscious decisions. In everyday life, at work and in marketing.