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BOOK REVIEW

‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ by Daniel Kahneman

Research on thinking explains why we make bad decisions

By Jesse Singal

 |   

  December 04, 2011

From the protests in Zuccotti Park to the labs of behavioral economists everywhere, a sweeping revolution is taking place in how we view human behavior. Rational-choice theory, which argues that each human being is a rational actor seeking to maximize their utility (happiness), is, after a lengthy reign as one of the guiding principals of economics (and many styles of politics), on its way out. In “Thinking, Fast and Slow,’’ Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel-prize-winning psychologist at Princeton University, offers up a sweeping, compelling tale of just how easily-bamboozled our brains are.

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