Library:Thinking, Fast and Slow
| Thinking, Fast and Slow | |
|---|---|
| Author | Daniel Kahneman |
| First published | 2011 |
| ISBN | — |
| Role | Analysis |
| Domains | Science & Space Society, Identity & Demographics |
| Tactics | Statistical & Evidentiary Distortion |
Thinking, Fast and Slow is a 2011 book by Daniel Kahneman.
Summary
Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist who won the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, summarizes decades of research, much of it with his late colleague Amos Tversky, on how people actually make judgments. He describes two modes of thinking: "System 1," which is fast, automatic and intuitive, and "System 2," which is slow, effortful and deliberate.
Most of the book catalogs the predictable ways fast thinking leads people astray, and why those errors are so hard to notice from the inside.
Key points
- Heuristics and biases. Mental shortcuts such as availability (judging frequency by what comes to mind) and anchoring (being pulled toward an initial number) produce systematic errors.
- WYSIATI. "What you see is all there is": people build confident stories from the information in front of them and ignore what is missing.
- Overconfidence. Experts and laypeople alike overrate the accuracy of their predictions and explanations.
- Caveat. Some studies the book cites, especially on priming, failed to replicate in later years, and Kahneman acknowledged this publicly in 2017.
Relevance to Bullshitopedia
The book explains why misinformation works on intelligent people: a vivid story, a memorable number or a repeated claim exploits fast thinking. It is a foundation for understanding nearly every tactic in Bullshitopedia's taxonomy.