Editing False consensus effect (section)

=== Cognitive Mechanisms ===
Cognitive mechanisms, such as the [[availability heuristic]], [[self-serving bias]], and [[naïve realism (psychology)|naïve realism]] have been suggested as at least partial underlying factors in the False Consensus Effect. The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that people default to, in which people may incorrectly attribute the likelihood or commonness of something based on how cognitively available the concept is to them, or how quickly it comes to mind; this could contribute to the False Consensus Effect when individuals have a readily available concept, causing them to overestimate its commonality. Self-serving bias is an attribution error that describes the tendency to attribute successes and positive traits to one's own internal factors, and attribute failures or negative traits to the external environment. This can contribute to the False Consensus Effect by justifying our actions with self-serving bias, and consequently using the False Consensus Effect to reinforce that those actions were acceptable by believing our views are widely shared. [[naïve realism (psychology)|Naïve realism]] is the idealist belief that we perceive the world accurately, and individuals who disagree with our perceptions are incorrect or bias; this contributes to the False Consensus Effect by reinforcing that people who disagree with our view are part of the minority, whereas the majority still agrees with us.