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)
The human mind is a story-teller, and it will tell a story to make sense of anything.
The most important skill in life is to know what you don't know.
The idea that the future is predictable is a delusion.
People are not thinking about what they're doing, they're doing what they're thinking about.
The confidence that individuals have in their beliefs is not a measure of the quality of evidence they have for those beliefs.
We are not rational, we are rationalizing.
The world makes much less sense than you think it does.
The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.
We are designed to make sense of the world, and we will make sense of it even when there is no sense to be made.
The only way to be happy is to be unhappy sometimes.
The human mind is a machine for jumping to conclusions.
We are not as good at predicting the future as we think we are.
People are very good at ignoring evidence that contradicts their beliefs.
The only way to make sense of the world is to admit that it doesn't make sense.
We are not as rational as we think we are, and we are not as irrational as we think we are.
The most important thing is to know what you're doing, and why you're doing it.
The world is full of noise, and we are very good at finding patterns in it, even when there are none.
The only way to be truly objective is to be aware of your own biases.
We are not as unique as we think we are.
The human mind is a wonderful thing, it can make up stories to explain anything.
Contemporaries of Daniel Kahneman
Other Psychologys born within 50 years of Daniel Kahneman (1934–2024).