Reaction Paper
Thinking, Fast and Slow 2011 a book by Daniel Kahneman
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
For Master of Business Administration Degree
Judgment in Managerial Decision Thinking
The secrets of the human brain: the two mechanisms that control our lives
Thinking, Fast and Slow is a 2011 book by Nobel Memorial Prize winner in Economics Daniel Kahneman which summarizes research that he conducted over decades, often in collaboration with Amos Tversky. It covers all three phases of his career: his early days working on cognitive bias, his work on prospect theory, and his later work on happiness.
The book's central thesis is a dichotomy between two modes of thought: System 1 is fast, instinctive and
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For system 1 is active all the time (unlike the two, which requires a conscious effort), are more prone to cognitive errors. An example of system autonomy 1:01 Müller-lyer is optical illusion in which two parallel lines seem to have different lengths. Even if we measure the two lines and convince ourselves (with the help of the two) that their length is the same, system 1 will continue to perceive as unequal.
Like optical illusions, cognitive illusions tend to be difficult to overcome, but the first step out from under the domination of these mistakes is thinking their awareness. When people are in a time of crisis, uncertain situations, decisions are taken by the system 1. Therefore, it is essential to know its weaknesses.
Cognitive mistakes that influence our decisions
It is vital to understand that there are people who are not affected by the weakness of the system 1. This is demonstrated by a simple test that Kahneman applied it a thousand times: "A baseball bat and a ball together cost $ 1.10. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much is it? ". Even for the most intelligent students, such as those at Harvard and Princeton, more than half gave the obvious answer offered by one system, but also wrong 10 cents. The correct answer was, of course, 5 cents.
One of the most common cognitive errors is "the overconfidence bias" - the tendency to excessive trust in their own abilities. Statistics show that the chances of a new company founded in the
A system that scientist have observed for example multitasking, when overload, the brain shifts from responsible for memory to responsible for tasks, this results in difficulty to learn the task or remember the action you have made. It is in fact, a possible struggle the world is suffering, some more than others, could be the poverty of attention. Anderson has taken in his own hands to explore and interact with a variety of experts, for example David Meyer, who while interacting with, is distracted with the universe daily activities, manages to respond to Andersons crisis of attention by stating, “People aren’t aware what’s happening to their mental processes”, he says, “in the same way that people years ago couldn’t look into their lungs
Cognitive distortions are overgeneralisation, dichotomous thinking and personalisation (McLeod 2008). These distortions reduce the persons ability to process information (Mcleod 2008). Research suggests that cognitive distortions are part of the way everybody handles difficult situations, therefore should they be regarded as causes of emotional problems? (Mcleod, Pg.145).
Attention is thought to be selective-focused on one subject at a time. Traditionally, it has been assumed that automatic processing is involuntary, it does not require attention, and is relatively fast; whereas, controlled processing is voluntary, does require attention, and is relatively slow. We can conclude from this that the more we repeat a certain material or tasks the more it becomes automatic and effortless to us.
Kahneman’s systems of thought is largely built on the framework of Stanovich and West (2000; as cited in Kahneman, 2003). It describes two types of thought processes: system 1 (perception and intuition) and system 2 (reasoning).
Unlike linear thinking, non-linear thinking is never tied to a pattern based upon prior experiences; however, non-linear thinking strengthens are experience and expertise the sub consciousness or unconsciousness uses during the thin-slicing process. Non-linear thinking often relates to uncertainty and the ability to have multiple outcomes. The non-linear framework accepts uncertainty and complexity as natural elements. The characteristics of a non-linear system can be describes as interdependent and non-proportional (Gingrich, 1998, pp. 72-73).
Also, his aim which is to give a complete theory of human nature is way over-ambitious. Yet, this can be argued that cognitive psychology has identified unconscious processes, like our memory (Tulving, 1972), processing information (Bargh &Chartrand, 1999), and social psychology has shown the significance of implicit processing (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). These findings have confirmed unconscious processes in human behaviour.
World renowned journalist and best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell, in his novel, Blink, discusses the step by step analysis of how the first few seconds impacts our decision making skills. Gladwell’s purpose is to explain how the initial reaction we face and how our brain responds to an event is far more intricate than we may think. By utilizing the information presented through his book via psychological tests,real life stories, and interactive puzzles, Malcolm Gladwell emphasizes how one can be able to control his snap judgements to become better decision makers in everyday life.
Holt N., Bremner A., Sutherland E., Vliek M., Passer M., Smith R. (2012), Psychology The Science Of Mind And Behaviour; The psychodynamic perspective, 565.
In order to come to a decision concerning these two questions, several authors, among them Peter Carruthers, Daniel Dennett, Colin McGinn, Nicholas Humphrey and Robert VanGulick, refer to an empirical phenomenon called "blindsight". (2)
Kahneman argues that the illusion of validity comes from fast thinking because it is “prone to doubt.” Meaning, people naturally think quickly because they need a reason and so they do not have time to question their explanation. However, Kahneman neglects to mention that fast thinking roots itself in the fear of uncertainty. Kahneman begins his essay by describing his experience in evaluating
* Sample: The sample is limited to a small proportion of working professionals in Western Sydney and may not accurately reflect the population of working professionals.
processes that people are unaware of or can be made aware of. The cognitive perspective
Organizational behavior helps managers to improve the organization in a good way. Decision making process is the one of the behavior in human organizational behavior. According to McShane and Von Glinow (2000), “decision making a conscious process of making choices among one or more alternatives with the intention of moving toward some desired state of affairs”. Decision making is a linear process and it includes six steps such as identifying the problems, gather and evaluate data, list and evaluate alternatives, select best action, implement the decision and getter feedback (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).
Ranking the book between 0 and 10; I will give the book a good 8.5/10. It’s simply a lovely book; amongst all other self-help or pop-psychology books I think Thinking fast and slow is the Godfather.
We have to think about the qualitative factors that are involved in our decision making too. In the decision making process, as we saw in a case called The Nancy M. Hohman, we saw that many times the numbers will not speak louder than our personal preferences. The Nancy M. Hohman was a less than one year old ship, worthy US$ 40 million, carrying 200,000 tons of crude oil and 28 crew members and had an engine malfunction 9 miles way off the coast of South Africa. However, Port Elizabeth (the nearest one) was too small for the ship and the next close one was 380 miles away.