Volume 15, No. 3 (Fall 2012)
How rational are humans? Many important implications hinge on this seemingly innocuous question hinge, for not only economists, but all social scientists. In Thinking, Fast and Slow, psychologist and recipient of the 2002 Nobel memorial prize in economics (alongside Vernon Smith), Daniel Kahneman, gives a summary view of the question. At first glance the book seems to be an overview of Kahneman’s lifework, but upon closer inspection it offers much more. Kahneman synthesizes the research of the past forty years to give the reader a more or less complete answer to the question: how rational are we? He also explains the special cases where humans resort to alternative heuristics in their decision-making.
