Serendipitious =
Occurring by chance in
a beneficial way
Thinking Fast & Slow
- D. Kahneman (2011)
System 1
& System 2
The central thesis is a dichotomy between two modes of thought: "System 1" is fast,
instinctive and emotional cant be switched off but it's the "secret author of many of the choices
and judgments you make"inking;
System 1 - logical assumptions of economic rationality that
do not reflect people’s actual choices, and does
not take into account behavioral biases.
jumps wildly to conclusions and it's
subject to a fantastic suite of irrational
biases and interference effects (the halo
effect, the "Florida effect", framing
effects, anchoring effects, the
confirmation bias,
The general point about the
size of our self-ignorance
extends beyond the details
of Systems 1 and 2. We're
astonishingly susceptible to
being influenced – puppeted
– by features of our
surroundings in ways we
don't suspect. One famous
(pre-mobile phone)
experiment centred on a
New York City phone booth.
Each time a person came
out of the booth after having
made a call, an accident
was staged – someone
dropped all her papers on
the pavement. Sometimes a
dime had been placed in the
phone booth, sometimes not
(a dime was then enough to
make a call). If there was
no dime in the phone booth,
only 4% of the exiting
callers helped to pick up the
papers. If there was a dime,
no fewer than 88% helped.
System 2 takes over, rather unwillingly, when things
get difficult. It's "the conscious being you call 'I'", and
one of Kahneman's main points is that this is a mistake.
You're wrong to identify with System 2,
"System 2" is
slower, more
deliberative, and
more logical.
2 systems of decision
making which need to be
balanced Poor decision
making is lead from in
proper balance of the two
People do not follow
the difficult and
bounded rational
model- we strive to be
rational when decision
making but we aren’t
always
Key Biases &
Illusions
Illusion of Validity
Focusing Illusion
Endowment Effect
In behavioral economics, the endowment effect is
the hypothesis that people ascribe more value to
things merely because they own them
Confirmation bias
Framing Effect
The framing effect is an example of cognitive bias, in
which people react to a particular choice in different
ways depending on whether it is presented as a loss
or as a gain
Hidden Traps in
Decision Making -
J. Hammond
(1998)
The Anchoring Trap - The
anchoring trap leads us to give
disproportionate weight to the first
information we receive.
The Status Quo Trap - The
statusquo trap biases us toward
maintaining the current
situation--even when better
alternatives exist.
The Sunk Cost Trap - The
sunk-cost trap inclines us to
perpetuate the mistakes of the
past.
The Framing Trap - The framing
trap occurs when we misstate a
problem, undermining the entire
decision-making process
at every stage of the decision-making
process, misperceptions, biases, and other
tricks of the mind can influence the choices
we make. The traps can work in isolation or
in concert. The best protection against all
psychological traps is awareness. They
advise taking action to understand and avoid
psychological traps.
sometimes the fault lies not in
the decision-making process but
rather in the mind of the
decision maker. The way the
human brain works can
sabotage the choices we make
Framing Bias -
Bazerman 1988
(47-48)
PLAN A
THIS PLAN WILL SAVE
ONE OF THREE PLANTS
AND 2000 JOBS
PLAN C
THIS PLAN WILL RESULT IN THE
LOSS OF TWO OF THE THREE
PLANTS AND 4000 JOBS
Climate Change as
Predictable Suprise -
Bazerman (2006)
Positive illusion: Optimism,
Control - We can sort it out
when problems arise
Egocentrism (Veil of
Ignorance)
Overly Discounting
Future
Heuristics - Kuhnberger
(2002)
Heuristic refers to
experience-based techniques
for problem solving, learning,
and discovery that give a
solution which is not
guaranteed to be optimal
1) Heuristcs
Cognitive Shortcuts
Quick & dirty tricks that may achieve
efficiency by risking failure
2) Heuristcs
as Biases
Avoidance
by
normative
education
World is too
complicated, mind
simplifies it so
frequent errors in
results
3) Fast & Frugal
Heuristics
Adaptive
Rationality
World is too complicated,
leads to correct solutions at
lower costs
Recognition
Principle
Do 'no harm'
Framing Bias
Cognitive shortcuts: not going through the rational
model Risking failure more but if it pays off it can be
effective The rational model is an ‘ALGORITHM’(step
by step procedure for calculations to solve a
problem) “Quick and dirty tricks”