Daniel Kahneman

Daniel Kahneman is an Israeli-American psychologist and economist notable for his work on the psychology of judgment and decision-making, as well as behavioral economics, for which he was awarded the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (shared with Vernon L. Smith). His empirical findings challenge the assumption of human rationality prevailing in modern economic theory.

Early life and education

Kahneman was born in Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine in 1934, where his mother, Rachel was visiting relatives. He spent his childhood years in Paris, France, where his parents had emigrated from Lithuania in the early 1920s. Kahneman and his family were in Paris when it was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940.

Kahneman received his B.Sc. in Psychology and Mathematics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1954. After obtaining his degree, he served in the psychology department of the Israeli Defense Forces. One of his responsibilities was to evaluate candidates for officer training school, and in this role, he began to develop the ideas that would later make him a pioneer of behavioral economics.

In 1958, he went to the United States to study for his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, graduating in 1961.

Career and research

Kahneman began his academic career as a lecturer in psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1961. His early work focused on visual perception and attention. In the late 1960s, he began to collaborate with Amos Tversky on decision-making under uncertainty, leading to the development of prospect theory (for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics).

In 1978, Kahneman left the Hebrew University to teach at the University of British Columbia. He then taught at the University of California, Berkeley from 1986 to 1994, and then at Princeton University from 1993 until his retirement in 2007.

Kahneman's work with Tversky on prospect theory has been cited in numerous economic texts. The theory, which is considered one of the foundational works of behavioral economics, challenges the traditional economic theory that people always act rationally and in their own best interests.

Awards and honors

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Kahneman has been awarded numerous other major awards in psychology and economics, including the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association in 1982 and the Grawemeyer Award in Psychology in 2002.

Personal life

Kahneman is married to Anne Treisman, a cognitive psychologist at Princeton University. They have two children.

See also

• List of Jewish Nobel laureates
• List of Israeli Nobel laureates