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Cracking the Shell on Psychological Science · January 26 · 15 min

Heuristics: Flawed shortcuts, or adaptive tools?

Perhaps one of the most widely studied topics in psychological science involves the study of heuristics and biases. Starting with the groundbreaking work of Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, the term "heuristic" became synonymous with decision making, and heuristic mechanisms such as "availability" and "representative" spread throughout psychology and even into popular science. Today, it's hard to imagine an area of cognitive science or economics that has had a greater effect on our understanding of human decision making. In this episode, Mike and Joey discuss some common decision heuristics and biases and the critiques of Tversky and Kahneman's work. Did Tversky and Kahneman have it right? Or, might it be better to recouch decision making in terms of an adaptive toolbox, as proposed by Gerd Gigerenzer?

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Perhaps one of the most widely studied topics in psychological science involves the study of heuristics and biases. Starting with the groundbreaking work of Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, the term "heuristic" became synonymous with decision making, and heuristic mechanisms such as "availability" and "representative" spread throughout psychology and even into popular science. Today, it's hard to imagine an area of cognitive science or economics that has had a greater effect on our understanding of human decision making. In this episode, Mike and Joey discuss some common decision heuristics and biases and the critiques of Tversky and Kahneman's work. Did Tversky and Kahneman have it right? Or, might it be better to recouch decision making in terms of an adaptive toolbox, as proposed by Gerd Gigerenzer?

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