Thinking, Fast and Slow

Thinking, Fast and Slow

by

Daniel Kahneman

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Daniel Kahneman Character Analysis

The author and narrator of Thinking, Fast and Slow. In the book, Kahneman synthesizes much of the research he has completed over the course of his career. To illustrate some of the ideas he researched, he also uses anecdotes from his time attending the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as well as serving in the psychology department of the Israeli Army. After his time in the army, Kahneman became a lecturer in psychology and collaborated with Amos Tversky to study judgment, decision-making, and prospect theory (for which Kahneman won a Nobel Prize in 2002). The different parts of the book cover different phases of Kahneman’s own research—cognitive biases, prospect theory, and his later work on happiness. Kahneman’s desire in writing Thinking, Fast and Slow is to help people who do not have experience in cognitive science and psychology understand the way their minds work: their intuitions, their biases, their decision-making processes, and ultimately how they evaluate their own experiences. Kahneman’s goals are to help people identify when they are prone to make mistakes, how those mistakes have real-life consequences, and even how societies and governments can influence public policy to help people avoid those mistakes.

Daniel Kahneman Quotes in Thinking, Fast and Slow

The Thinking, Fast and Slow quotes below are all either spoken by Daniel Kahneman or refer to Daniel Kahneman. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Intuition, Deliberation, and Laziness Theme Icon
).
Part 1, Chapter 1 Quotes

The gorilla study illustrates two important facts about our minds: we can be blind to the obvious, and we are also blind to our blindness.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis:

Constantly questioning our own thinking would be impossibly tedious, and System 2 is much too slow and inefficient to serve as a substitute for System I in making routine decisions. The best we can do is a compromise: learn to recognize situations in which mistakes are likely and try harder to avoid significant mistakes when the stakes are high.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 3 Quotes

The bat-and-ball problem is our first encounter with an observation that will be a recurrent theme of this book: many people are overconfident, prone to place too much faith in their intuitions.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 45
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 4 Quotes

The results are not made up, nor are they statistical flukes. You have no choice but to accept that the major conclusions of these studies are true. More important, you must accept that they are true about you.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 57
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 7 Quotes

Contrary to the rules of philosophers of science, who advise testing hypotheses by trying to refute them, people (and scientists, quite often) seek data that are likely to be compatible with the beliefs they currently hold.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:

We often fail to allow for the possibility that evidence that should be critical to our judgment is missing—what we see is all there is.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 10 Quotes

We are far too willing to reject the belief that much of what we see in life is random.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 117
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 12 Quotes

The explanation is a simple availability bias: both spouses remember their own individual efforts and contributions much more clearly than those of the other, and the difference in availability leads to a difference in judged frequency.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 131
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 13 Quotes

The lesson is clear: estimates of causes of death are warped by media coverage. The coverage is itself biased toward novelty and poignancy.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker), Paul Slovic
Page Number: 138
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 14 Quotes

People without training in statistics are quite capable of using base rates in predictions under some conditions. […] However, concern for base rates evidently disappears as soon as Tom W’s personality is described.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 152
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 15 Quotes

The set of feminist bank tellers is wholly included in the set of bank tellers, as every feminist bank teller is a bank teller. Therefore the probability that Linda is a feminist bank teller must be lower than the probability of her being a bank teller. […] The problem therefore sets up a conflict between the intuition of representativeness and the logic of probability.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Related Symbols: Müller-Lyer Illusion
Page Number: 157
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 16 Quotes

Nisbett and Borgida found that when they presented their students with a surprising statistical fact, the students managed to learn nothing at all. But when the students were surprised by individual cases—two nice people who had not helped—they immediately made the generalization and inferred that helping is more difficult than they had thought.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 173-174
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 17 Quotes

Indeed, we pay people quite well to provide interesting explanations of regression effects. A business commentator who correctly announces that “the business did better this year because it had done poorly last year” is likely to have a short tenure on the air.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 182
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3, Chapter 19 Quotes

A general limitation of the human mind is its imperfect ability to reconstruct past states of knowledge, or beliefs that have changed. Once you adopt a new view of the world (or of any part of it), you immediately lose much of your ability to recall what you used to believe before your mind changed.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 202
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3, Chapter 20 Quotes

The illusion of skill is not only an individual aberration; it is deeply ingrained in the culture of the industry. Facts that challenge such basic assumptions—and thereby threaten people’s livelihood and self-esteem—are simply not absorbed.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Related Symbols: Müller-Lyer Illusion
Page Number: 216
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3, Chapter 21 Quotes

Applying Apgar’s score, the staff in delivery rooms finally had consistent standards for determining which babies were in trouble, and the formula is credited for an important contribution to reducing infant mortality.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 227
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3, Chapter 23 Quotes

In this view, people often (but not always) take on risky projects because they are overly optimistic about the odds they face. I will return to this idea several times in this book—it probably contributes to an explanation of why people litigate, why they start wars, and why they open small businesses.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 253
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3, Chapter 24 Quotes

Experts who acknowledge the full extent of their ignorance may expect to be replaced by more confident competitors, who are better able to gain the trust of clients.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 263
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 26 Quotes

For most people, the fear of losing $100 is more intense than the hope of gaining $150. We concluded from many such observations that “losses loom larger than gains” and that people are loss averse.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker), Amos Tversky
Page Number: 284
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 30 Quotes

You read that “a vaccine that protects children from a fatal disease carries a 0.001% risk of permanent disability.” The risk appears small. Now consider another description of the same risk: “One of 100,000 vaccinated children will be permanently disabled.” The second statement does something to your mind that the first does not.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 329
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 34 Quotes

People will more readily forgo a discount than pay a surcharge. The two may be economically equivalent, but they are not emotionally equivalent.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 364
Explanation and Analysis:

Saving lives with certainty is good, deaths are bad. Most people find that their System 2 has no moral intuitions of its own to answer the question.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 369
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 5, Chapter 35 Quotes

Confusing experience with the memory of it is a compelling cognitive illusion—and it is the substitution that makes us believe a past experience can be ruined.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 381
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 5, Chapter 37 Quotes

The use of time is one of the areas of life over which people have some control. Few individuals can will themselves to have a sunnier disposition, but some may be able to arrange their lives to spend less of their day commuting, and more time doing things they enjoy with people they like.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 395
Explanation and Analysis:
Conclusions Quotes

The investment of attention improves performance in numerous activities—think of the risks of driving through a narrow space while your mind is wandering—and is essential to some tasks, including comparison, choice, and ordered reasoning. However, System 2 is not a paragon of rationality. Its abilities are limited and so is the knowledge to which it has access.

Related Characters: Daniel Kahneman (speaker)
Page Number: 415
Explanation and Analysis:
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Daniel Kahneman Character Timeline in Thinking, Fast and Slow

The timeline below shows where the character Daniel Kahneman appears in Thinking, Fast and Slow. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Chapter 1
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Kahneman opens by allowing us to observe our minds in two different processing modes. He first... (full context)
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Next, Kahneman instructs us to solve the problem 17 x 24. He states that we know we... (full context)
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Kahneman adopts the terms used by psychologists Keith Stanovich and Richard West, who referred to these... (full context)
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Kahneman then lists some examples of System 1 and System 2 processing: System 1 detects distance,... (full context)
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Kahneman writes that the phrase “pay attention” is apt, because we have a limited budget of... (full context)
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Kahneman illustrates this concept in a famous study conducted by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons. They... (full context)
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Kahneman then asks readers to participate in an experiment, reading two sets of words. In each... (full context)
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What Kahneman reveals, and what we find when we participate, is that it is easier to call... (full context)
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Kahneman next introduces illusions, including a famous image called the Müller-Lyer illusion. It shows two figures:... (full context)
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...of a visual illusion, but there are cognitive illusions as well. As a graduate student, Kahneman attended courses on psychotherapy. One professor said that the students might meet a patient who... (full context)
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Kahneman understands that it is impractical to constantly question our own thinking. But he writes that... (full context)
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Kahneman then includes a disclaimer by saying that he talks about System 1 and System 2... (full context)
Part 1, Chapter 2
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In chapter 2, Kahneman advises readers to try an exercise: write out several strings of four digits, and, while... (full context)
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In experiments, Kahneman and a colleague—Jackson Beatty—found that people’s eyes dilated the harder they worked during this exercise.... (full context)
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Kahneman then questions what makes certain tasks more demanding than others. He believes that more effort... (full context)
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Kahneman finishes the chapter by commenting that very few things in our lives force us to... (full context)
Part 1, Chapter 3
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Kahneman relays that System 2 has a natural speed. We expend some mental energy in considering... (full context)
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...the main functions of System 2 is to monitor the actions “suggested” by System 1. Kahneman provides a sample puzzle: “A bat and ball cost $1.10. The bat costs one dollar... (full context)
Part 1, Chapter 4
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Kahneman next introduces how we form associations and stories. He presents two words: “Bananas” and “Vomit.”... (full context)
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Kahneman writes that people often react to this information in disbelief. He tries to quell fears... (full context)
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Kahneman concludes with an experiment conducted in an office kitchen. The office asked for people to... (full context)
Part 1, Chapter 5
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Kahneman describes how, when we are conscious, multiple computations are happening in our brains: to monitor... (full context)
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Kahneman next writes about illusions of memory. He writes down a few names: David Stenbill, Monica... (full context)
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We often make judgments based on whether information is cognitively easy to retrieve. Kahneman describes how he retook a driving test after moving to a new state. Some answers... (full context)
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...believe if they are clearer—even font contrast, letter size, and paper quality make a difference. Kahneman advises not to use complex language when simpler language suffices, and that adages with rhymes... (full context)
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Kahneman proves how cognitive ease can distort our processing. In a study, participants are given three... (full context)
Part 1, Chapter 6
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The main function of System 1, Kahneman reiterates, is to maintain and update the model of the world, which represents what is... (full context)
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“How many animals of each kind did Moses take into the ark?” Kahneman asks. Very few people detect what is wrong with the question, because the animals in... (full context)
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Kahneman writes, “Fred’s parents arrived late. The caterers were expected soon. Fred was angry.” He points... (full context)
Part 1, Chapter 7
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System 1 allows us to use intuition to draw conclusions. Kahneman introduces two shapes that can either look like the letter “B” or the number “13”... (full context)
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Kahneman describes a scenario in which one might meet a woman named Joan at a party.... (full context)
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Kahneman describes the halo effect he himself experienced when grading students’ exams. He would often be... (full context)
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Kahneman next introduces a principle, which he terms “What You See Is All There Is” (WYSIATI).... (full context)
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In an experiment constructed by Kahneman’s long-time scientific partner Amos Tversky, people were presented with a legal scenario. Some people heard... (full context)
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Lastly, WYSIATI accounts for what Kahneman calls “base-rate neglect.” Kahneman briefly describes a fictional man named Steve in the introduction and... (full context)
Part 1, Chapter 8
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This ancient mechanism has some modern influence: it affects how people vote. Kahneman’s colleague Alex Todorov showed his students pictures of the faces of political candidates who were... (full context)
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...to understanding language, System 1 carries out basic assessments like computations of similarity and representativeness. Kahneman demonstrates this with a drawing. Two towers of blocks are immediately recognizable as having the... (full context)
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Kahneman introduces another aptitude of System 1: matching across diverse dimensions. Kahneman introduces a fictional woman... (full context)
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...constantly carries out computations, and often computes more than we want to or need to—which Kahneman calls the “mental shotgun.” In an experiment, people are asked to press a key as... (full context)
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...with the instruction to determine as fast as possible if the sentence was literally true. Kahneman lists some sentences: “Some roads are snakes.” “Some jobs are snakes.” “Some jobs are jails.”... (full context)
Part 1, Chapter 9
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Kahneman presents a set of difficult questions and the easier questions we often substitute for them.... (full context)
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Kahneman includes another visual illusion: three men walking down a road. Due to the perspective of... (full context)
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Kahneman concludes Part 1 by summing up the features and activities attributed to System 1 that... (full context)
Part 2, Chapter 10
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...statistical” facts, which change probabilities of certain outcomes but do not cause them to happen. Kahneman asks readers to imagine a large urn filled with marbles. Half the marbles are red,... (full context)
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Kahneman and Tversky’s work in the early 1970s began with an exploration of whether people who... (full context)
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Kahneman had read shortly before his work with Tversky that psychologists commonly chose samples that exposed... (full context)
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Kahneman next presents a statement: “In a telephone poll of 300 seniors, 60% support the president.”... (full context)
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Our preference towards causes exposes us to serious mistakes in evaluating randomness. Kahneman proposes a scenario: looking at the sex of six babies born in sequence at a... (full context)
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Kahneman soon applied this principle in his own work. When the Yom Kippur War broke out... (full context)
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Kahneman finishes the chapter by providing an example that mirrors the one about cancer incidence. Research... (full context)
Part 2, Chapter 11
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Kahneman and Tversky once rigged a wheel of fortune that was marked from 0 to 100,... (full context)
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Kahneman describes another example: if people are asked whether Gandhi was more than 114 years old... (full context)
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Kahneman, on the other hand, believed that anchoring is produced by priming. In the Gandhi example,... (full context)
Part 2, Chapter 12
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Kahneman and Tversky spent 1971-72 at the Oregon Research Institute, studying what they called the “availability... (full context)
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Kahneman and Tversky considered how many instances must be retrieved to get an impression of ease.... (full context)
Part 2, Chapter 13
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Kahneman writes that he sees the merit in both arguments: that availability cascades are real and... (full context)
Part 2, Chapter 14
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Kahneman next introduces a puzzle that he created, which centers on a fictional graduate student named... (full context)
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Kahneman writes that the mathematical details are not relevant in the book, but there are two... (full context)
Part 2, Chapter 15
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Kahneman introduces another puzzle he created about a fictional person, this time a “single, outspoken, and... (full context)
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This cognitive illusion, which Kahneman and Tversky dubbed “the conjunction fallacy,” still remains attractive even when people realize that they... (full context)
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Kahneman puts forth counterexamples to show why plausibility is so pernicious. He asks which alternative is... (full context)
Part 2, Chapter 16
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Kahneman asks us to consider a scenario and note our intuitive answer: a cab was involved... (full context)
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...causal version of the cab problem creates a stereotype that green cab drivers are dangerous. Kahneman admits that social stereotypes can be harmful, but that stereotypes in general allow us to... (full context)
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Kahneman and Tversky borrowed the notion of causal base rates from Icek Ajzen. In an experiment,... (full context)
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For a teacher of psychology, Kahneman writes, the study is disheartening because the results did not change their beliefs about people’s... (full context)
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...immediately made the generalization and inferred that helping is more difficult than they thought. This, Kahneman says, is why his book contains questions that are addressed to the reader: being surprised... (full context)
Part 2, Chapter 17
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Kahneman describes how, while working with the Israeli Air Force, one of the instructors emphasized punishment... (full context)
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Kahneman notes that the instructor was right—but also very wrong! The instructor was inappropriately attaching causality... (full context)
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Kahneman writes that success = talent + luck. Kahneman explores this principle in looking at a... (full context)
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Regression effects are everywhere, and people often misattribute causes to explain them. Kahneman points to analysis of the Olympic ski jump, in which athletes jump twice. If athletes... (full context)
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Kahneman goes on to discuss how regression can be measured between variables on different scales, using... (full context)
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Kahneman makes up a headline: “Depressed children treated with an energy drink improve significantly over a... (full context)
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In a final example, Kahneman adapts a question from Max Bazerman’s Judgment in Managerial Decision Making. The given circumstances are... (full context)
Part 2, Chapter 18
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Kahneman reintroduces Julie, a current senior at a state university who read fluently when she was... (full context)
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Kahneman then describes another question he and Tversky once asked people. After describing a freshman student... (full context)
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In the case of Julie, Kahneman writes, it is necessary to perform several calculations for an accurate answer. 1) Start with... (full context)
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Kahneman writes that the biases we find in predictions that are expressed on a scale (like... (full context)
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Kahneman writes that the most valuable contribution of these corrective measures is that they require people... (full context)
Part 3, Chapter 19
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Many people, Kahneman writes, claim they knew that the 2008 financial crisis was inevitable. But Kahneman explains they... (full context)
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In discussing recipes for success, Kahneman brings up a study that looks at the correlation between the quality of a CEO... (full context)
Part 3, Chapter 20
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Decades ago, Kahneman watched soldiers in the Israeli Army as they completed a group exercise. He and a... (full context)
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The evidence that Kahneman and his colleague were not able to forecast accurately was overwhelming. Their forecasts were better... (full context)
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In 1984, Kahneman, Tversky, and a friend named Richard Thaler visited a Wall Street firm. Kahneman remembers being... (full context)
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Kahneman describes how a student of his, Terry Odean, began studying the trading records of individual... (full context)
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...majority of them, the selection of stocks is more like rolling dice than playing poker. Kahneman discovered in his own research that differences in skill were not to be found. (full context)
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Executives at these firms reward luck as if it were skill. Kahneman presented his findings to these executives, who certainly believed the findings but whose behavior was... (full context)
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Kahneman moves on to discuss pundits in business and politics, whose hindsight bias makes it difficult... (full context)
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...simply assigned equal probabilities to those three outcomes (or worse than a “dart-throwing monkey,” as Kahneman writes). (full context)
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There are two main points to this chapter, Kahneman writes. The first is that the errors of prediction are inevitable, and the second is... (full context)
Part 3, Chapter 21
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Kahneman also introduces the idea that some formulas don’t even require any statistical research. Psychologist Robin... (full context)
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In 1955, at 21 years old, Kahneman was assigned to set up an interview system for the army. At the time, every... (full context)
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Kahneman decided that instead of learning about the interviewee’s mental life, the army should obtain specific... (full context)
Part 3, Chapter 22
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Kahneman next writes about his collaboration with Gary Klein, a colleague who did not agree with... (full context)
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Kahneman’s view of intuition was formed by observing the illusion of validity with his own work... (full context)
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...next phase is a deliberate process in which the plan is checked by System 2. Kahneman believes that this kind of intuition is really recognition of information stored in memory. (full context)
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Kahneman and Klein realized that their disagreements stemmed from the fact that they had different experts... (full context)
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Kahneman concluded that there are two conditions to acquire real expertise: an environment that is sufficiently... (full context)
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The conclusion that Kahneman and Klein came to is that, for the most part, it is possible to distinguish... (full context)
Part 3, Chapter 23
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A few years after beginning his work with Tversky, Kahneman convinced some officials in the Israeli Ministry of Education of the necessity for a textbook... (full context)
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Then Kahneman asked Seymour Fox, an expert in curriculum development, whether he could think of teams similar... (full context)
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The statistics that Fox provided, Kahneman writes, should have dissuaded them from continuing the project. It took them eight years to... (full context)
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Kahneman learned three lessons from this incident. The first is the distinction between the two methods... (full context)
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The second lesson is that Kahneman and his team estimated a best-case scenario rather than a realistic assessment. Even though the... (full context)
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Kahneman and Tversky coined the term planning fallacy to describe plans like this that are unrealistically... (full context)
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The outside view, Kahneman and Tversky found, is the cure to the planning fallacy. It is now called reference... (full context)
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Kahneman realizes that not only did the team commit the planning fallacy, but he was particularly... (full context)
Part 3, Chapter 24
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Years prior, Kahneman and his wife were on vacation and found a nice but deserted motel in a... (full context)
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Kahneman asks readers to consider two questions: “Are you a good driver?” and “Are you better... (full context)
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Returning to the example of people working on a business venture, Kahneman writes they will also overestimate their own effect on outcomes, rather than considering the actions... (full context)
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Kahneman acknowledges, however, that if CFOs had given the accurate 80% range, they would have been... (full context)
Part 4, Chapter 25
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Kahneman introduces the difference between the way in which economists and psychologists think about people. Economists... (full context)
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After discovering this difference in the early 1970s, Tversky proposed to Kahneman that they study decision making to discover what rules govern people’s choices between simple gambles,... (full context)
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Utility theory focused on the decisions of Econs, but Tversky and Kahneman wanted to investigate the intuitive decisions of Humans. Five years after studying gambles, they completed... (full context)
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Kahneman is fascinated with the idea that the theory survived for so long when there are... (full context)
Part 4, Chapter 26
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Kahneman discovered the flaws in Bernoulli’s theory because he noticed that gambles were often spoken of... (full context)
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...that gains and losses have different utilities. These differences were neither expected nor studied. When Kahneman and Tversky casually shifted from speaking about winning to speaking about losing in different thought... (full context)
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Kahneman asks readers to consider two problems: 1) Get $900 for sure OR 90% chance to... (full context)
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Kahneman gives two more problems: 1) You are given $1,000. You are then asked to choose... (full context)
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Kahneman and Tversky found three cognitive features at the heart of prospect theory: 1) Evaluation is... (full context)
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Kahneman points out another flaw in Bernoulli’s theory, proved by Matthew Rabin in 2000. He notes... (full context)
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Kahneman admits that there are benefits to utility theory, especially in introductory economic texts. The basic... (full context)
Part 4, Chapter 27
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Thaler spent a year at Stanford while Kahneman and Tversky completed their work. During this period, they become friends and explored the endowment... (full context)
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Kahneman, Thaler, and a local economist named Jack Knetsch, designed an experiment that would highlight the... (full context)
Part 4, Chapter 28
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Loss aversion has a biological and psychological root in which negativity dominates positivity. Kahneman shows pictures of two sets of eyes—one wide and frightened, the other calmer. We are... (full context)
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Thaler, Knetsch, and Kahneman next designed a survey to examine people’s view of fairness in economic transactions. One question... (full context)
Part 4, Chapter 29
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...outcome, weighted by the probability of that outcome. But this theory does not reflect reality. Kahneman gives four examples of probability changes: 1) From 0 to 5%, 2) From 5 to... (full context)
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Kahneman asks what the reader would prefer in two problems: A. 61% chance to win $520,000... (full context)
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Kahneman then applies the fourfold pattern to a court case. Plaintiffs with good chances will want... (full context)
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Kahneman contrasts this case with a frivolous suit, in which a plaintiff with a flimsy case... (full context)
Part 4, Chapter 30
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Kahneman visited Israel several times during a period in which suicide bombings became a concern for... (full context)
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Kahneman gives an example of a study that refutes part of prospect theory. Instead of receiving... (full context)
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For comparison, Kahneman gives an example of two different people from whom a person may want advice. Adele... (full context)
Part 4, Chapter 31
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Kahneman asks readers to imagine a pair of concurrent decisions. In the first, choose between A)... (full context)
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A risk policy is analogous to the outside view Kahneman discussed earlier: both shift the focus from the specific situation to the statistics of outcomes... (full context)
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Kahneman concludes the chapter with an anecdote from Richard Thaler, who had a discussion with 25... (full context)
Part 4, Chapter 32
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The main motivators of money-seeking are not always economic, Kahneman writes. For example, two sports fans travel 40 miles to see a basketball game. One... (full context)
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...additional resources in a losing account is known as the sunk-cost fallacy, a costly mistake. Kahneman asks readers to imagine a company that has already spent $50 million on a project.... (full context)
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Kahneman reintroduces the example from Chapter 29 of parents who are buying an insect spray. He... (full context)
Part 4, Chapter 33
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Kahneman presents another puzzle, asking the reader to set compensation for a victim of a violent... (full context)
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Kahneman next asks readers to imagine that they have been asked to contribute money to help... (full context)
Part 4, Chapter 34
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Kahneman demonstrates that two statements about the results of the 2006 World Cup final: “Italy won”... (full context)
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Kahneman and Tversky applied frames to gambles in these two scenarios. They asked some participants, “Would... (full context)
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Kahneman and Tversky also explored framing with this example: the U.S. is preparing for the outbreak... (full context)
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Some frames can be more useful than others. Kahneman asks readers to consider a pair of problems. In the first, a woman loses two... (full context)
Part 5, Chapter 35
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Kahneman provides two different definitions for utility: “experienced utility,” which refers to the enjoyability of outcomes... (full context)
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Kahneman creates a puzzle that asks whether people would pay more to reduce a number of... (full context)
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Kahneman then examines the experience of two patients undergoing a painful colonoscopy. His study was conducted... (full context)
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...now?”) from the remembering self (which answers the question “How was it, on the whole?”). Kahneman reports how an audience member in a lecture of his stated that a record scratch... (full context)
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Kahneman describes how these rules have bases in biology: even rats ignore duration of pain and... (full context)
Part 5, Chapter 36
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Kahneman relates to the peak-end rule with his own experience: seeing La Traviata. The opera ends... (full context)
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In a description of a fictitious woman named Jen, Kahneman says she was never married and had no children. In one version of her story,... (full context)
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...when they decide whether or not to repeat an experience. Taking vacations as an example, Kahneman asks a thought experiment: if you knew that you would have no pictures, videos, or... (full context)
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In another thought experiment, Kahneman writes that you will undergo a painful surgery for which you will be awake and... (full context)
Part 5, Chapter 37
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Kahneman describes how when he became interested in the study of well-being, most information about the... (full context)
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Kahneman and a team of psychologists developed a method to measure well-being of the experiencing self.... (full context)
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Kahneman found that our emotional state is largely determined by what we focus on. If we... (full context)
Part 5, Chapter 38
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Kahneman includes a graph that tracks life satisfaction between the four years before and the five... (full context)
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Kahneman introduces another concept about happiness and well-being that has to do with attention: nothing in... (full context)
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In a study conducted by one of Kahneman’s undergraduate students, the student collected data on people who were asked about the percentage of... (full context)
Conclusions
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Kahneman concludes by reexamining some of the larger principles in the book, beginning with the experiencing... (full context)
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Kahneman then returns to the idea of Econs and Humans, as well as basic economic theory.... (full context)
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Kahneman ends by returning to the two systems: the automatic System 1 and the effortful System... (full context)