On Traders Behaving Badly and Cognitive Bias

"So here is my theory: the details [of market manipulation by funds] are not specific enough for the public to see it as real. And if they can't formulate a picture, they can't believe it happens all that often ... That is an example of a cognitive bias called the availability heuristic. If we can have examples, the more concrete the better, the more likely we are to believe that a phenomenon is valid (that is why anecdotal evidence is more persuasive than it ought to be)."