Mental Shortcuts: How Trampers Can Avoid Heuristics

Heuristics, often referred to as ‘mental shortcuts', play a critical role in our everyday lives, helping us make decisions faster and more efficiently. Most of the time this is a good thing, but in a harsh, unforgiving environment, such as New Zealand’s mountains, relying on mental shortcuts can lead to poor decisions that compromise your safety.

Many hiking and tramping incidents happen because of mental shortcuts. Learning what these traps are and how to avoid them is an essential part of keeping safe in the outdoors. We highlight six common mental shortcuts, how they could arise on a typical tramping trip and how to avoid them. 


Familiarity

Making decisions based on past experiences.

In many everyday situations, like choosing a route to the supermarket, work or to drop the kids at school, familiarity can be useful, as it saves you time and mental processing. However, in the backcountry, succumbing to familiarity can lead to complacency, overlooking hazards and taking unnecessary risks that can make all the difference to your safety.

Conformity/Acceptance

Making decisions to ensure you fit in – or don’t stand out.

As humans, we don’t like to stand out from the bunch. ‘Going with the flow’ and ‘not making a fuss’ are often lauded characteristics in everyday life. While many of us would like to think we don’t ‘show-off’, we’d be lying if we said we’d never done something just to impress others or avoid saying something because it might create conflict. This desire to fit in or get approval from others is called ‘conformity’ or ‘acceptance’.

Acting a certain way to impress others can lead to some very bold and risky calls in the outdoors. This mental shortcut tends to show up in very specific circumstances. It’s common whenever there are both men and women in a group, and it tends to occur more often when there are new or less experienced members, or when there are group members who are not overly familiar with each other.

Commitment/Goal-Oriented

Making decisions based on the end goal or objective.

Commitment is a trap that can be incredibly rewarding in everyday life, and even in the outdoors when applied correctly. Also known as ‘goal oriented’, it’s the way we tend to keep the long-term goal in mind to overcome obstacles along the way.

While there are plenty of reasons to celebrate commitment, in the context of outdoor adventures, especially in the backcountry, it’s important to recognise when we are doing something just because we are committed when red flags are flying.

Expert Halo

Deferring decision-making to the perceived expert.

Have you ever let someone else make the decisions because they’re the expert? This is known as the expert halo mental shortcut.

No doubt we’ve all been out tramping in a group that has a perceived leader who, if not calling the shots, is certainly influencing them. To avoid this trap, ask yourself: Why are they the perceived leader? Is it because they think they know it all? Perhaps they’re overly confident in their opinion or they’re just the loudest person in the group. Or is it that they’re more experienced than you so you automatically feel like they’re in a better position to call the shots? None of those examples are great reasons to let them make all the decisions.

Scarcity

Making decisions to do something because the opportunity doesn’t happen very often.

Have you ever had a dose of FOMO? The fear of missing out can be compelling, especially if that thing is a great trip outdoors. Most of us don’t get the chance to get out as much as we’d like, so when the opportunity comes along, we don’t want to miss it.  We tend to feel under more pressure to get a hold of something if we aren’t sure there will be another opportunity.

The scarcity mindset can blind us from making sensible decisions because we’re motivated by the lack of regular opportunity.

Social Proof

Making decisions based on evidence that others have been there with the assumption that it must be safe.

Sometimes called ‘tracks’, this trap involves being influenced by the presence of others or evidence that others have been there before you. It can make you more likely to do something you aren’t sure about because you can see that others have done it. Social proof becomes a trap when you start thinking a route, decision or action is safe because others are doing it (or you can see evidence they have done it) and aren’t getting into trouble. 


Questions people ask about mental shortcuts


What To Do Next

Continue your preparation with our online resources. There is still plenty to learn to ensure a safe and enjoyable trip.              

Find out more about outdoor safety

Read our series on mental shortcuts

This series was also published in Wilderness magazine

This page was reviewed and updated in September 2025