Same case, different verdict: where objectivity is important, for example in the courtroom or in the doctor’s office, there is a surprising disagreement. Psychologist and Nobel laureate in economics Daniel Kahneman on decisions, mistakes and the noise of humanity
When two or more experts evaluate and classify the same information, this often results in completely different assessments. This is often evident in the pandemic in particular: is the situation bad? Is the situation getting better? Loosen up or lockdown? How can it be that the same facts lead to partially contrary conclusions? The psychologist and Nobel laureate in economics, Daniel Kahneman, deals with questions like these. Together with the lawyer Cass Sunstein and the strategy specialist Olivier Sibony, he has just published the book “Noise. What distorts our decisions – and how we can improve them” (Siedler, 2021, 480 pages, 30 euros). In it, the scientists deal with the disturbing noise of the human, because of which different judgments are made on the basis of the same information depending on the circumstances or experts.