The introductory lecture to the class of 2008 in Princeton was done by Prof. Daniel Kahneman on the wonders and flaws of intuitive thinking. The webcast of the lecture is available in the Pricneton media website.
Kahneman distinguishes between two modes of thinking – Reasoning and intuition. While intuition is powerful and accounts for most of our thinking, it is suceptible to illusions. These illusions can result in wrong choices in a variety of situations. He discusses the topic and its relevance to behavioral economics and to public policy using examples of psychological research conducted in the US and Europe. Most of the discussion in this talk centres on a questionnaire that was administered to the incoming batch.
The lecture goes for about one hour. Kahneman’s eloquence and presentation skills make the webcast worth the watch. Kahneman’s interview by Harry Kriesler in his Conversation with history series is a good introduction to his life and work. The one hour long interview deals with Kahneman’s early life in World War Germany, subsequent move to Israel and his work with Tversky. The interview is wide-ranging and interesting. The podcast of the interview can be found here.
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I think the work of Kahneman and his collaborators (Tversky, Thaler) (and those of the behavioral economists) are exciting in that they are providing basis for a more realistic and alternative model to the ‘rational actor’ model in mainstream economics. Did you attend his lecture?
I did not attend the lecture, but did manage to hear a few of his Webcasts. Unfortunately, I don’t share with you the enthusiasm that their work will help create an “alternate model” – but I guess the discussion on such topics will have to be rather long