Biases, and Technology

Decision-Making

Their work in the fields of decision sciences and behavioral economics earned Kahneman a Nobel prize as it helped shape how people think about decision-making under uncertainty.

From their work, the concept of errors and biases in human decision-making sprang forth. They started with a few simple cases, but other researches have helped the field explode and have uncovered dozens of different phenomena.

*Note: It is likely that some or many of these are found in controlled lab experiments only and may not be particularly 

But Kahneman and Tversky weren’t studying these phenomena from the perspective of a weak human. They didn’t go in to identify human shortcomings; they were simply trying to figure out how the mind works.

They didn’t go in to identify human shortcomings; they were simply trying to figure out how the mind works.

Much like perceptual psychologists were able to understand how the eye works by studying optical illusions, Kahneman and Tversky hoped to better understand the human mind by knowing its limitations.

Indeed, while many consider these error and bias instances as human frailty, they are instead important characteristics that have allowed humans to be successful over many millennia. They are shortcuts that allow us to navigate a complex, poorly defined world. They help us avoid spending excess cognitive capacity on problems that don’t need it and give us the best chance at survival.