Recency bias
Etymology
From recent, Latin recens, "fresh, new." Memory researchers first documented the "recency effect" — items at the end of a list are recalled best — in mid-20th-century serial-position studies. The broader "recency bias" carried that lopsided weighting from memory into judgment, especially in investing and performance reviews.
noun · /REE-sun-see BY-us/
The tendency to give the most recent events far more weight than older ones when judging a situation.
What it names
Why the last thing that happened feels like the trend — a bad month reads as decline, a good week as a turnaround.
Example
Her manager’s recency bias meant a strong year got overshadowed by one clumsy presentation two weeks before the review.
Related idea
Availability heuristic weights whatever comes to mind easily; recency bias is the special case where sheer newness is what makes it easy.