How often we predict human perceptions fitting particular trait to
a person. If anyone wears a Gandhi cap we guess he must be a politician, a thin
uncouth person with dhoti and kurta as a farmer. But, we miss an important
point of statistics. Have you ever thought how many people who are not
politicians wear Gandhi cap and what about people who are not farmers who wear
dhoti and kurta. It is our fast thinking we have made a mental construct and we
try to fit models to it. There is another way of thinking which is slow and we
are often reluctant to use it because it takes time and effort to use it. World
renowned psychologist Dr. Daniel Kahneman takes us into a deep journey to
discover these two processes of thinking.
In the past our teachers have suggested many a times to write
answers in the examination. You should write your best answers in the beginning
and make minimum mistakes in the beginning, this creates a halo effect in the
mind of the examiner and you end up getting better marks. Often, you might have
made right efforts but failed to obtain satisfactory result. This might be due
to the fact in the end you were not able to present your work. In the books he
has elaborated on how thinking is anchored to a particular anchor makes your
decision biased. He has given the example of an experiment done in a
supermarket where they gave discount to for a limited number of products one
day whereas next day they gave discount on unlimited product. The number of products bought by customers
decreased to half. We seldom spend a lot
on luxurious items without thinking how much less we are going to use. But our
emotional intuitiveness blocks us from slow thinking and we have to pay heavy
price for the ephemeral luxury. The
author explains beautifully how often our causes elude the statistics favoring
an event.
Our
life is the result of the choices we make. Whether it may be a game of cards we
try to averse the losses. If we have two options, where in one we have a chance
of 10 to 90 of winning a million but if we lose have to pay fifty thousand and
on the other hand there is option of 90 to 10 of winning a lakh and losing five
thousands. Rarely we will take the risk and go for the first option. It is the
loss which hurt us the most. We try to minimize our risk. That is why plan our
work and set a reference goal based on the past results.
You
will find lot of companies offer life insurance cover. Benefit for this is that
they pay a minimum interest on premium. People readily agree to conditions
because they have vivid picture of rare accidents that might occur to them.
Often a disaster occurs to a place and we try to keep away from the place.
Though there is very less chance that the disaster will occur again to that
place. Rare events are so compelling that we try to avoid them. Often, people
take up policies which have minimum risk, though these may not be productive
but these save them from the possible loses that may occur if they take the risk.
Overall
the author has summed up all his knowledge garnered by his experiences which
arouses inquisitiveness to know more about social thinking and to find out
frames and realities of life. Sometimes you may think how confined your
thinking was. It is always good to decide slow, thinking about all the possible
solutions and choosing the best solution. Human psychology is based on
reference points. It is you who has to deliberate on your decisions to be happy
ever-after. This book helps you to envisage your thinking abilities and
elaborates the beauty of deliberate thinking.
Courtesy: Live Magazine
