The psychologist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002 dies at 90

The psychologist, educator and author Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize winner in Economics in 2002, has died at the age of 90.

Kahneman never studied Economics but in 2002 he won the award from the Bank of Sweden and shared it with Vernon Smith. His recognition was due to the fact that demonstrated how humans make decisionsparticularly in situations of uncertainty and gave meaning to what is known as loss aversion.

The psychologist of Israeli origin, raised in France and living in New York Manhattan (USA) used his training as a psychologist to advance in what would be called behavioral economics. His work, mostly done during the 1970s, led to a rethinking of issues such as medical malpractice and international political negotiations and helped establish the field of behavioral economics, which applies psychological insights to study of economic decision makingbut it also had a far-reaching effect outside of academia.

Kahneman discovered that people take intellectual shortcuts that they often lead to wrong decisions that go against their own interests and that those decisions occur because humans “are too influenced by recent events.”

His public recognition was largely based on his book Think, fast and slowa bestseller published in 2011 in which he explained his findings to the general public through plain writing and illustrative vignettes that helped take the subject beyond the specialized reader.

He developed the already existing notion that the mind operates in two modes: System One, fast and intuitive (mental activities with which we are more or less born) and System Two, slow and analytical, a more complex mode that involves experience and requires effort.

He defined himself as “the grandfather of behavioral economics” when asked what he would like his obituary to be like in a 2016 Times interview.