SAN FRANCISCO — Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist who won a Nobel Prize in economics for his insights into how ingrained neurological biases influence decision making, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 90.
Kahneman and his longtime collaborator Amos Tversky revolutionized the field of economics, which previously assumed that people were rational actors capable of making clear evaluations. Their research, as described in Kahneman’s best-selling book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” from 2011, focused on the impact of subconscious biases and mental shortcuts on decision-making.
For example, Kahneman discussed false confidence in predictions, recounting a leadership test used by the Israeli army that highlighted the limitations of intuitive judgment. This was the first cognitive illusion he identified, coining the term “the illusion of validity” to explain the phenomenon.
Barbara Tversky, Kahneman’s partner and widow of Amos Tversky, confirmed his passing to The Associated Press. The family has chosen not to disclose the cause or location of his death.
Kahneman and Tversky’s partnership began in 1969 and led to groundbreaking research on decision-making, including the concept of loss aversion and the development of prospect theory. Kahneman was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics in 2002 for his contributions to the field of behavioral economics.
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