Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment

by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, Cass R. Sunstein

In their new book, Daniel Kahneman, Nobel laureate and author of "Thinking, Fast and Slow," Olivier Sibony, and Cass R. Sunstein examine the phenomenon of "noise": 

People who are presented with identical information make different decisions – depending on external circumstances that have nothing to do with the subject at hand. This is true for different people as well as for the same person at different times.

We are not aware of it, but noise is widespread. It exists, for example:

• In jurisprudence: for similar crimes, widely varying verdicts are given – both by different judges and by the same judge depending, for example, on the weather or the time of day.
• In forensics: while one specialist evaluates two fingerprints as matching, another considers them different.
• In medicine: two doctors make different diagnoses for the same symptoms or evaluate X-rays differently.
• At school and in businesses: Teachers or supervisors evaluate similar performances of their students, employees, or job applicants differently.

The authors examine how noise emerges, what types of noise exist, what consequences (desired and undesired) it results in, how we can recognize it, and what options we have to minimize its negative influence on our decisions.

Noise is a well-researched, worth-reading, and insightful book for anyone who wants to understand decisions and make more equitable choices in their everyday and professional lives.

🎧 Suitable as an audiobook? Yes!

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Genres

Decision Making Behavioral Economics Psychology Critical Thinking Business Strategy