Tverskiego

Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky were Israeli psychologists and Nobel laureates whose collaborative work in the 1970s and 1980s revolutionized the fields of cognitive psychology and behavioral economics. Amos Tversky, born on March 16, 1937, in Haifa, British Mandate of Palestine, was a pioneering researcher in judgment and decision-making. He earned his Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University in 1961 and later joined the faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he spent most of his career.

Tversky’s most significant contributions came from his partnership with Kahneman, whom he met in 1969. Together, they developed the **prospect theory**, a groundbreaking framework that describes how people make decisions under uncertainty. Unlike classical economic theory, which assumes rational agents maximizing utility, prospect theory highlights cognitive biases, such as loss aversion (where losses loom larger than equivalent gains) and framing effects (where decisions vary based on how information is presented). Their work challenged traditional economic models and laid the foundation for behavioral economics.

Tversky also introduced key concepts like **representativeness heuristic**, where people judge probabilities based on how closely an event resembles a prototype, and **availability heuristic**, where judgments rely on the ease with which examples come to mind. These heuristics explain common cognitive shortcuts that can lead to systematic errors in reasoning.

Tversky passed away on May 2, 1996, at the age of 59, from cancer. His legacy endures through his collaborations with Kahneman, which earned Kahneman the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Tversky’s work continues to influence fields ranging from marketing and public policy to artificial intelligence, emphasizing the importance of understanding human irrationality in decision-making processes. His insights remain foundational in behavioral science, shaping how researchers and practitioners approach problems involving judgment and choice.