He was one of those who shocked and inspired an entire generation of thinkers. The Israeli-American Nobel Prize winner in economics Daniel Kahneman, who introduced psychological theories into economic sciences, died at the age of 90, Princeton University confirmed this Wednesday, March 27, where he continued to work. teach.
A psychologist by training, Daniel Kahneman, author of the bestselling book “System 1/System 2: The Two Speeds of Thought”, integrated the findings of research in his original branch into economic analysis, considerably influencing the discipline . His work was rewarded with the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002.
“The ability to think against oneself”
Taking into account that man was not the rational and selfish animal that was believed, Daniel Kahneman showed how the decision-making of individuals could systematically deviate from the predictions of traditional economic theory, introducing an “irrationality variable” in the calculations.
“One of Dany’s great talents is the ability to think against oneself, and to find the flaws in one’s own reasoning, with more stubbornness than I have ever seen in anyone else” , his former collaborator, Olivier Sibony, testified to L’Express in 2021.
His work has inspired a new generation of researchers in economics and finance. “Many areas of social science are simply not the same because of him. He will be greatly missed,” said his colleague Eldar Shafir, professor of psychology at Princeton University, in a press release.