Representativeness heuristic

Biological Parallel

Batesian mimics like the harmless milk snake evolved to resemble venomous coral snakes because predators use representativeness—looks like a coral snake, probably is a coral snake. This heuristic works when base rates favor the model (many coral snakes, few mimics) but breaks down as mimics proliferate. Predators face the same statistical errors humans do: judging category membership by similarity rather than probability. The system persists because being occasionally wrong costs less than examining every snake closely.