Jerusalem, March 28
Daniel Kahneman, an Israeli-American cognitive psychologist and Nobel laureate in economics, has died at the age of 90.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog in a statement on Wednesday said, “We lost one of the brightest minds we have known,” adding that Kahneman’s research has made history and changed the way humanity perceives reality, bringing great pride to Israel and the Jewish people as a whole.
“His research will continue to contribute to humanity and science even after his death, as will the many students he inspired,” the Israeli President was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying.
Kahneman was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2002 for integrating psychological research insights into economic science, particularly focusing on human judgment and decision-making in uncertain situations.
He showed how decisions in uncertain circumstances often deviate systematically from predictions made by standard economic theory, which assumes that people’s behaviour is rooted in a rational decision-making process.
Kahneman was a fellow of the Center for the Study of Rationality at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a member of the university’s Department of Psychology, and a professor and researcher at several leading North American universities.
