Daniel Kahneman was a Nobel Prize-winning behavioral economist, psychologist, and author of the best-selling book on modern economic theory, “Thinking, Fast and Slow.”
- Died: March 27, 2024 (Who else died on March 27?)
- Details of death: Died at the age of 90.
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Daniel Kahneman’s legacy
Kahneman was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, but he and his family lived in Paris when the Nazis invaded in 1940. They were on the run for most of WWII and eventually ended up in British Mandatory Palestine, shortly before the creation of the state of Israel. He earned a degree from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, then got his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley.
Kahneman began a career in academic psychology, authoring and co-authoring a series of books and papers, including “Attention and Effort,” “Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment,” and others. In 2002, his work on behavioral economics was honored with the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, alongside economist Vernon L. Smith. In 2011, his research was summarized in the best-selling book “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” which analyzes two distinct modes of thought in human beings and how they influence our behavior.
Kahneman was recognized as one of the world’s most prominent thinkers by The Economist magazine and Foreign Policy magazine. He received dozens of honors over the course of his career, including the Hilgard Award for Lifetime Contributions to General Psychology, the American Psychological Association’s Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to Psychology, the Talcott Parsons Prize by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In all, he was awarded more than two dozen honorary degrees.
Notable quote
“We would all like to have a warning bell that rings loudly whenever we are about to make a serious error, but no such bell is available … The voice of reason may be much fainter than the loud and clear voice of an erroneous intuition.”—Excerpt from “Thinking, Fast and Slow”
Tributes to Daniel Kahneman
Full obituary: The Washington Post
