Daniel Kahneman: biography of the psychologist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics

Daniel Kahneman is a reference in the world of psychology because has managed to combine this discipline with another quite disparate one, economics. This psychologist, who has dual Israeli and American nationality, has been one of the few to have been awarded a Nobel Prize.

But how has Daniel Kahneman achieved a prize that many consider unattainable? Next, We will take a journey through the biography of this psychologist, in order to know their origins, their experiences and their motivations. To do this, we will have articles as interesting as Daniel Kahneman: a new Nobel Prize in Economics for Psychology.

Daniel Kahneman in his early years

Daniel Kahneman was born in 1934 in Tel Aviv, the second largest city in Israel. He lived his early years in France during an uncertain period, as it was the time when the outbreak of World War II occurred. This marked a before and after in his life and, as a consequence, Kahneman became interested in how human society worked (sociology).

In 1948, three years after the war had ended, he traveled with his family to Palestine, where He began his academic training in mathematics and psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After completing it, he completed mandatory military service.

United States, the beginning of everything

While Daniel Kahneman was performing military service, he worked for the State of Israel as a psychologist perfecting the interview system they had to recruit new people. After this period, she decided to travel to the United States to continue training in psychology, his true passion.

In 1958, Kahneman received his doctorate in Psychology from the University of California. After this, he returned with his family to Palestine to work as a teacher and researcher at his old university.

However, in 1974, he returned again to the United States to carry out this work at the university where he received his doctorate. Currently, he works as a professor in the Department of Psychology at the renowned Princeton University.

The prospect theory

After this tour of Daniel Kahneman’s personal life, it is worth asking what led him to win a Nobel Prize. It all started with the development of prospect theory in which he researched together with Amos Tversky, cognitive psychologist and mathematician. With this theory, they discovered what they called heuristic shortcuts, which have to do with decision making.

This was the beginning of a series of articles that he prepared together with other authors, mostly with Tversky with whom he also published two books. However, there is one work that Daniel Kahneman created alone and that is still widely read today. We talk about Think fast, think slow, an essay on judgments, intuitions and mental biases in which we find brilliant conclusions and examples that are both curious and illuminating.

Behavioral economics was a perspective deeply studied by Kahneman. His studies led him to investigate hedonistic psychology with which he developed a new line of research. His contributions continued to be extremely valuable.

Daniel Kahneman and the Nobel Prize

The contributions that Daniel Kahneman made throughout his years did not go unnoticed. From all of them new lines of research emerged, ways of understanding behavior with respect to the economy and a concept never thought of, that of neuroeconomics. All of this led him, in 2002, to receive the Nobel Prize.

In the article Daniel Kahneman: Nobel Prize in Economics 2002the following words are collected in which He thanked him for his reception without forgetting a very important person for him.:

We are sure that Daniel Kahneman He continues to do exceptional work as a professor at Princeton University and that, those who have him as a teacher, are enjoying the knowledge and motivations of one of the few psychologists who has achieved, to date, a Nobel Prize.

You might be interested…