Thinking, Fast and Slow is a book about human thinking mode. Professor Kahneman found that human thinking embodies two characteristics, one is quick thinking driven by instinct, and the other is slow thinking driven by reason. The human brain does not say which part is responsible for fast thinking and which part is responsible for slow thinking, but experiments show that thinking activities do embody these two characteristics. People tend to overestimate their rationality. Psychological experiments show that human instinct, desire and other factors have great influence on thinking. People think that the conclusion reached through rational judgment is actually greatly influenced by instinctive quick thinking.
I was particularly impressed by an experimental case in the book. Scholars tracked and recorded the process in which judges of Israeli misdemeanor courts ruled traffic violations. This kind of misdemeanor case is very simple, and the judge can try it alone and make a judgment quickly. Records show that the conviction rate of judges who skip breakfast is significantly higher than that when they eat breakfast. I believe the judges will be very surprised by this observation. I also work in law. Legal practitioners often think they are very objective and rational. No one would have thought that a judge would be so influenced by instinct.
There are many experimental cases in the book, which is why this academic book is so interesting to read. A few more interesting ones:
For example, you plan to go to a concert tonight. Scene 1: You bought a ticket for 200 yuan, but you can't find it when you leave. Will you go to the scene to buy another ticket? Scene 2: You didn't buy the ticket in advance, but you have 200 yuan cash in your pocket. When I left, I found that I couldn't find the cash. Will you go to the scene to buy another ticket?
In fact, there is no difference between these two scenes, which are essentially 200 yuan. But in the first scene, most people will choose not to go, and in the second scene, most people will choose to buy tickets on the spot. The author calls this phenomenon "psychological account", which is also 200 yuan, but people put them in different "accounts" in their hearts, thus showing different attitudes.
For example, there is a very common phenomenon in the stock market. When people want to sell stocks, they usually sell stocks at a profit and leave a loss. But in fact, profitable stocks are often strong, while loss-making stocks are weak. A more rational approach is actually to sell losses and keep profits. The author calls this phenomenon "sunk cost", and people will be reluctant to give up the cost they have invested, even though it may lead to greater losses.
Also, people are naturally more sensitive to numbers than proportions, which is called "proportion deviation". Lawyers should not say "the probability of DNA mismatch is 0. 1%", but should say "1000 death penalty cases will have a DNA mismatch", which is more likely to cause judges to doubt DNA evidence. Of course, as a prosecutor, it should be the other way around.
The previous examples are the simplest examples in the book, and there are many brain-burning. If you want to make some logical bends, you won't quote them in this essay. However, if you look at these cases of brain burning, it is actually more exciting. They are all challenging people's common sense, making people say "Oh" after reading it. The author's main academic contributions are also summarized from these cases.
From these short examples, we can roughly see why a psychologist can win the Nobel Prize in Economics. Obviously, his research results give a novel and convincing explanation to people's judgment and decision-making process. In fact, from 65438 to 0960, Kahneman's research achievements have been published one after another, and there are many examples of absorbing and drawing lessons from his achievements in both the commercial field and the national public policy field. His theory has become a very important support for behavioral economics. (Kahneman's research on judgment and decision-making mechanism was completed together with another psychologist, amos tversky. Unfortunately, Amos died early and didn't win the Nobel Prize, so it is more accurate to say "their theory".
This is another feature of this book, and this is its practicality. Generally speaking, academic books are theoretical, and it is difficult for readers to get practical guidance from them. This book is not. Some enterprises use its theory to improve their business models, and some countries use it to improve their public policies. Everyone who has read it will gain something, at least be wary of their usual judgments and decisions, because the author also pointed out a 28 law-in a group, 80% people think they belong to it. Humans always tend to be optimistic and overestimate themselves. Perhaps this is the result of evolution.
Why is such a voluminous academic work so useful? We can get a glimpse of the author's life experience revealed in the book.
Professor Kahneman is Jewish. He spent his childhood in Europe. He stayed away from the Nazis with his family and finally survived. Later, he came to Israel with his family and obtained a bachelor's degree in psychology and mathematics from Hebrew University in Israel.
Israel is a country established by war, and all people have to perform compulsory military service. Kahneman joined the army at the age of 2/kloc-0 and worked in the psychological department, responsible for the psychological evaluation of the entire Israeli army. He is the big boss of the psychology department. This sounds dumbfounded, but Kahneman said that there were many such situations at that time, and no one felt that there was anything wrong with letting a 2 1 year-old college student do such an important job, because this country was built in the war, everything is new, there is no experience to learn from, talents are scarce, and every citizen should play his role.
Kahneman said that he had crustily developed a set of psychological evaluation scale to guide his comrades who are generally older or older to make psychological evaluation on newly recruited soldiers, and to judge who is suitable for what arms and who has more potential to become officers, and so on. In the subsequent follow-up evaluation, he found that the evaluation results were in a mess and had no guiding significance at all. Kahneman pondered this and realized that it was because the evaluator added too much subjective will in the evaluation, that is, instinct-driven quick thinking prevailed. Kahneman also created a more objective scale according to the statistical principle, trying to limit the subjective factors of the tester, and the result was unexpectedly good.
The U.S. military has specially studied why the overall level of Israeli pilots is significantly higher than that of American pilots with the same plane and the same training. Psychological evaluation and consultation of the Israeli army is considered to be an important factor. Since then, armies all over the world have begun to attach importance to the construction of psychological departments.
The experience of the army is an important factor for Kahneman to finally establish his own theory. I think the usefulness of an academic work is closely related to the author's experience in Israel. Israel was born and raised in artillery fire, and the people are faced with various problems that need to be solved urgently every day. Therefore, Israel's academic research is probably also particularly realistic and problem-oriented. Today, Israel has become one of the top innovative countries in the world, which may be an extension of this tradition.