Member-only story
The man who did not change his mind
Last week, it transpired that Daniel Kahneman’s death last year was by assisted suicide. Why might many struggle with the decision of one of the authorities on decision making?
Just under a year ago, Daniel Kahneman passed away, shortly after his 90th birthday. He had been studying human behaviour and decision making, together with his long-time collaborator Amos Tversky, since the 1970s, rose to fame when he was awarded the Economics Nobel prize in 2002, and became almost a household name with his bestselling 2011 book, Thinking Fast and Slow, which introduced many of his and of his fellow scholars’ insights to the wider public. An article in the Wall Street Journal on 14 thMarch by former collaborator of Kahneman’s Jason Zweig revealed that he died in an assisted-suicide facility in Switzerland. The article, and the reactions to it, bore witness of widespread incomprehension at Kahneman’s decision — despite his reputation as an expert on decision making. Isn’t that odd?
Who is not thinking rationally?
Kahneman would often allude to the fact that his lifelong preoccupation with decision making did not prevent him from making flawed, ‘irrational’ choices like the rest of us. The epitome of…
