Daniel Kahneman
Nobel laureate for prospect theory and cognitive biases
Most quoted
"A general 'law of least effort' applies to cognitive as well as physical exertion. The law states that if there are several ways of achieving the same goal, people will eventually gravitate to the least demanding course of action."
— from Thinking, Fast and Slow, 2011
"The confidence we experience as we make a judgment is not a reasoned evaluation of the probability that it is right. Confidence is a feeling, which reflects the coherence of the information and the cognitive ease of processing it."
— from Thinking, Fast and Slow, 2011
"The sunk-cost fallacy is the idea that people are reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial."
— from Interview/Lecture
All quotes by Daniel Kahneman (309)
We are designed to see patterns, and we are designed to see causality.
The core of the illusion is that we believe we understand the past, which implies that the future also should be understandable.
The less effort, the more likely the answer is to be wrong.
The human mind is not designed to understand logic, but to understand stories.
The main reason for the difficulty of intuitive prediction is that it is not a prediction at all, but an evaluation of the evidence.
We are not rational agents, but rather intuitive agents who sometimes reason.
The only way to learn from mistakes is to acknowledge them.
The measure of success in life is not what you achieve, but how you feel about what you achieve.
The human mind is a wonderful thing. It starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public.
The problem with experts is that they don't know what they don't know.
The essence of intuitive heuristics is that they are not based on logical reasoning, but on associations and emotions.
We are more likely to be influenced by vivid examples than by statistical facts.
The most important lesson I've learned is that we are not as rational as we think we are.
The human mind is a story-making machine, and it prefers coherent stories to disjointed facts.
The only way to improve decision-making is to slow down and think.
The human mind is a system that is constantly trying to make sense of the world, even when there is no sense to be made.
The feeling of knowing is a powerful illusion.
The human mind is a prediction machine, and it is constantly trying to predict the future.
The most important thing to remember is that we are all biased.
The human mind is a pattern-seeking machine, and it will find patterns even when there are none.
Contemporaries of Daniel Kahneman
Other Psychologys born within 50 years of Daniel Kahneman (1934–2024).