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Thinking, Fast and Slow (by Daniel Kahneman)

Article · May 2016

DOI: 10.19232/uv4pb.2016.1.92

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 UV4Plants Bulletin, 2016, no. 1

 Book Review
Thinking, Fast and Slow (by Daniel Kahneman)
Pedro J. Aphalo, ORCID: 0000-0003-3385-972X
ViPS, Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
DOI: 10.19232/uv4pb.2016.1.92 © 2016 The Author, licensed under

ideas easier to remember, or how to trigger

rational versus intuitive functioning of the
brain of those who listen to us, or those who
read what we write, will be very useful.
If you are a student, you will will learn
when to be on guard, to avoid intuition lead-
ing you into wrong answers. You will learn
how to write in a way that triggers positive
“feelings” in a reader, and why apparently un-
important things like the choice of font may
affect how what you write is assessed and
graded (without the person doing the grad-
ing even noticing…)
Many of these effects are usually subtle,
and not too large under “normal” circum-
stances, but understanding how humans
(and other organisms) make decisions is very
important when we need to make rational
decisions and aim at being objective. The
book also discusses to some extent why two
contrasting systems for thinking may have
evolved.
There is a review of the book from a stat-
istician’s viewpoint at Patrick Burn’s web site,
and videos of a lecture by Daniel Kahneman
on the subject of the book available in You-
Tube.

I have found Thinking, Fast and Slow ex-

tremely interesting. Understanding how and
References
why we make choices is important for every-
body. If you are a scientist or aspire to be
one in the future, understanding why we ac- Kahneman, D. (2012). Thinking, fast and slow.
cept more readily some experimental results London: Penguin Books. isbn: 0141033576.
than others, why we are more comfortable
with some hypotheses than others, is of fun- Edited by: T. Kotilainen and S. Siipola.
damental importance, both to guard against
bias, and to be able to present our new ideas
in a way that will make them more accept-
able. Daniel Kahneman is an Israeli-American
If you are a teacher or aspire to be one in psychologist, Eugene Higgins Professor of
the future, understanding how we can make

© 2016 by the authors 43

 10 P. J. Aphalo: Thinking, Fast and Slow

Psychology, Emeritus, and Professor of Psy-

chology and Public Affairs, Emeritus, Woo-
drow Wilson School, Princeton University. He
was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sci-
ences in 2002. His biography at the Nobel
Prize Official website sheds light on how a re-
search career leading to a Nobel Prize can be
based on a lifetime of exploration of a range
of subjects rather than a focused pursuit of
known target. This brings us back to Glad-
well’s Outliers: The Story of Success reviewed
in this issue by Sari Siipola (Page 41).

44 © 2016 by the authors

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