Thinking, Fast and Slow¶
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Cited by¶
18 citations across 18 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Primes¶
- Anchoring
- Structural tension: Some anchors carry genuinely informative content (a market price reflects supply-demand equilibrium; a peer's estimate reflects shared knowledge), while others are arbitrary (a random wheel, a first offer with no warrant).
This sourceFarrar, Straus and Giroux. Chapter 11 ('Anchors') distinguishes two anchoring routes - deliberate insufficient adjustment (System 2) and automatic priming via selective construction (System 1) - and contrasts arbitrary with informative anchors.
- Structural tension: Some anchors carry genuinely informative content (a market price reflects supply-demand equilibrium; a peer's estimate reflects shared knowledge), while others are arbitrary (a random wheel, a first offer with no warrant).
- Belief Formation
- Cognitive psychology: Dual-process accounts (System 1 versus System 2) of how beliefs are formed under time pressure versus deliberation, the psychology of credibility assessment, the formation of false beliefs (fake-news vulnerability, misinformation persistence), and developmental trajectories of belief, a domain Kahneman (2011) synthesized by tracing how associative belief-fixation often outruns deliberative correction.
Supported in partVerified against the work's full text
Kahneman's introduction supplies the System 1 / System 2 frame and associative memory, but this text does not state the belief-fixation-outruns-correction claim.
“shows how associative memory, the core of System 1, continually constructs a coherent interpretation of what is going on in our world at any instant.”
- Cognitive psychology: Dual-process accounts (System 1 versus System 2) of how beliefs are formed under time pressure versus deliberation, the psychology of credibility assessment, the formation of false beliefs (fake-news vulnerability, misinformation persistence), and developmental trajectories of belief, a domain Kahneman (2011) synthesized by tracing how associative belief-fixation often outruns deliberative correction.
- Complementarity
- Wave–particle complementarity — the methodological insight that two mutually exclusive descriptions can be jointly required — transfers to organizational forecasting, where the inside view (model-based, mechanism-aware) and the outside view (reference-class, base-rate) are complementary rather than rival
This sourceDevelops the complementary inside-view (model-based) versus outside-view (reference-class, base-rate) forecasting stances, arguing both are required rather than rivals. (
- Wave–particle complementarity — the methodological insight that two mutually exclusive descriptions can be jointly required — transfers to organizational forecasting, where the inside view (model-based, mechanism-aware) and the outside view (reference-class, base-rate) are complementary rather than rival
- Contextual Mode Switching
- .
This sourceSystem 2 (slow, effortful, deliberative), with System 2 engaged by task difficulty/stakes/cognitive load. Directly SUPPORTS the System 1/System 2 cognitive mode-switching claim, and is already named in the body's formal example, making the footnote self-consistent. RE-SOURCED from the non-existent 'anderson-2017' key ('Computational Reflection in the ML Family, ACM Computing Surveys 50(1)') which could not be verified as a real article and concerns meta-programming, not dual-process cognition.
Supported in partVerified against the work's full text
Kahneman describes switching from fast intuition to slow effortful thinking when intuition fails, but only difficulty is named, not stakes or cognitive load, and not computational models of reflection.
“we often find ourselves switching to a slower, more deliberate and effortful form of thinking”
- .
- Decision
- Psychology & neuroscience: Dual-process theories (System 1 fast/intuitive, System 2 slow/deliberative), decision fatigue, cognitive load, attention, emotion's role in choice, sunk-cost fallacy, regret and post-decision dissonance, temporal discounting, neuroeconomics (value representation in brain, intertemporal choice) — a synthesis Kahneman (2011) consolidates in his integrative treatment of dual-system decision-making.
This sourceFarrar, Straus and Giroux. Integrative treatment of System 1 (fast/intuitive) vs System 2 (slow/deliberative) cognition and the heuristics and biases that shape choice.
Supported in partVerified against the work's full text
Supports the System 1/System 2 dual-process framing and emotion in choice; the fetched page is a description plus introduction excerpt and does not show decision fatigue, sunk cost, regret or discounting.
“System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical.”
- Psychology & neuroscience: Dual-process theories (System 1 fast/intuitive, System 2 slow/deliberative), decision fatigue, cognitive load, attention, emotion's role in choice, sunk-cost fallacy, regret and post-decision dissonance, temporal discounting, neuroeconomics (value representation in brain, intertemporal choice) — a synthesis Kahneman (2011) consolidates in his integrative treatment of dual-system decision-making.
- Decision Fatigue
- The impulse-bias amplification: Fatigued agents show increased susceptibility to immediately-salient or emotionally-valenced options, reduced discount of impulsive preferences, and faster abandonment of deliberative frames; impulse-driven choices increase even when deliberative alternatives are available.
This sourceFarrar, Straus and Giroux. Integrative dual-process (System 1/2) treatment; discusses ego depletion and willpower-as-finite-resource and decision-scheduling practices of high performers.
- The impulse-bias amplification: Fatigued agents show increased susceptibility to immediately-salient or emotionally-valenced options, reduced discount of impulsive preferences, and faster abandonment of deliberative frames; impulse-driven choices increase even when deliberative alternatives are available.
- Fast-Path / Slow-Path Architecture
- In human cognition, fast intuitive pattern-matching handles most cognitive load while slow deliberate reasoning is recruited when the fast process flags difficulty, novelty, or high stakes, with metacognitive uncertainty as the trigger.
This sourceThe System 1 / System 2 account — fast intuitive pattern-matching handling most load, slow deliberate reasoning recruited on difficulty, novelty, or stakes — supporting the human-cognition fast/slow instance.
Supported in partVerified against the work's full text
Kahneman's introduction describes switching to slow, effortful thinking when intuition fails, and System 1 as more influential than it feels; novelty, stakes and metacognitive uncertainty triggers are not stated.
“The spontaneous search for an intuitive solution sometimes fails—neither an expert solution nor a heuristic answer comes to mind. In such cases we often find ourselves switching to a slower, more deliberate and effortful form of thinking.”
- In human cognition, fast intuitive pattern-matching handles most cognitive load while slow deliberate reasoning is recruited when the fast process flags difficulty, novelty, or high stakes, with metacognitive uncertainty as the trigger.
- Heuristic
This sourceFarrar, Straus and Giroux. Integrative treatment of System 1/System 2 cognition: synthesizes willpower depletion, hyperbolic discounting, temptation, present-bias, and salience effects as manifestations of a common dual-process architecture for intertemporal choice.
- Inversion
- Psychology and decision-making: Perspective-taking and role-reversal as cognitive reframing; Kahneman 2011 Thinking, Fast and Slow documents inversion heuristics in judgment under uncertainty and biases in forward vs. backward reasoning.
This sourceFarrar, Straus and Giroux. Integrative treatment of System 1/System 2 cognition: synthesizes willpower depletion, hyperbolic discounting, temptation, present-bias, and salience effects as manifestations of a common dual-process architecture for intertemporal choice.
- Psychology and decision-making: Perspective-taking and role-reversal as cognitive reframing; Kahneman 2011 Thinking, Fast and Slow documents inversion heuristics in judgment under uncertainty and biases in forward vs. backward reasoning.
- Problem Space
- Structural tension: Once a reasoner or team adopts a representation, switching to alternatives becomes cognitively and organizationally costly, an inertia Kahneman (2011) traces to System 1's anchoring on whatever frame is first activated.
This sourceFarrar, Straus and Giroux. Integrative treatment of System 1/System 2 cognition: synthesizes willpower depletion, hyperbolic discounting, temptation, present-bias, and salience effects as manifestations of a common dual-process architecture for intertemporal choice.
- Structural tension: Once a reasoner or team adopts a representation, switching to alternatives becomes cognitively and organizationally costly, an inertia Kahneman (2011) traces to System 1's anchoring on whatever frame is first activated.
- Regression to the Mean
- Even trained researchers can underestimate RTM magnitude and over-attribute changes to interventions
This sourceFarrar, Straus and Giroux. Integrative treatment of System 1/System 2 cognition: synthesizes willpower depletion, hyperbolic discounting, temptation, present-bias, and salience effects as manifestations of a common dual-process architecture for intertemporal choice.
- Even trained researchers can underestimate RTM magnitude and over-attribute changes to interventions
- Temporal Inconsistency and Preference Reversals
- This makes the problem tractable: commitment devices, incentive realignment, and temporal binding become systematic interventions, not ad-hoc fixes.
This sourceFarrar, Straus and Giroux. Integrative treatment of System 1/System 2 cognition: synthesizes willpower depletion, hyperbolic discounting, temptation, present-bias, and salience effects as manifestations of a common dual-process architecture for intertemporal choice.
- This makes the problem tractable: commitment devices, incentive realignment, and temporal binding become systematic interventions, not ad-hoc fixes.
Domain-specific¶
- Dual-process Theory
- Cognitive science and psychology — the home turf (Stanovich, Evans, Kahneman)
This sourceKahneman's account of fast, intuitive System 1 and slow, deliberate System 2 thinking and the biases of fast thinking in judgment and decision-making.
Supported in partVerified against the source
- Cognitive science and psychology — the home turf (Stanovich, Evans, Kahneman)
- Focusing Effect (Focusing Illusion)
- Kahneman's compact formulation captures the structure: "Nothing in life is as important as you think it is, while you are thinking about it."
SupportedVerified against the source
- Kahneman's compact formulation captures the structure: "Nothing in life is as important as you think it is, while you are thinking about it."
Mechanisms¶
- Capability Equivalence Matrix
- This is a textbook case of What You See Is All There Is.
This sourceDefines WYSIATI as constructing a coherent judgment from available information while neglecting evidence that is absent.
- This is a textbook case of What You See Is All There Is.
- Extreme-Selection Risk Flag
- It is the mechanism that keeps a team from mistaking "we intervened on the worst cases and they improved" for proof, a pattern vivid in the flight-instructor illusion where praising good landings seemed to hurt and berating bad ones seemed to help, purely from reversion.
This sourceIn the flight-instructor example, praised unusually good landings regressed downward and criticized unusually bad landings regressed upward; the pattern was reversion, not an intervention effect.
- It is the mechanism that keeps a team from mistaking "we intervened on the worst cases and they improved" for proof, a pattern vivid in the flight-instructor illusion where praising good landings seemed to hurt and berating bad ones seemed to help, purely from reversion.
- Hypothesis List
- Its strength is entirely at first encounter: it is the cheapest possible interruption of the mind's rush to a single coherent story, and it is most valuable exactly when one explanation feels too obvious to bother listing alternatives — because that feeling is usually What-You-See-Is-All-There-Is at work
This sourceExplains WYSIATI: confidence follows the coherence of the available story rather than the completeness or quality of its evidence.
- Its strength is entirely at first encounter: it is the cheapest possible interruption of the mind's rush to a single coherent story, and it is most valuable exactly when one explanation feels too obvious to bother listing alternatives — because that feeling is usually What-You-See-Is-All-There-Is at work
- Uncertainty Dashboard
- Its failure mode is that a dashboard makes what it shows feel like all there is: signals that are real but not yet on the board, or not cleanly quantifiable, effectively vanish — the "what you see is all there is" trap.
This sourceDescribes WYSIATI as the tendency to construct a coherent judgment from the information currently visible while neglecting absent information.
- Its failure mode is that a dashboard makes what it shows feel like all there is: signals that are real but not yet on the board, or not cleanly quantifiable, effectively vanish — the "what you see is all there is" trap.
Verification¶
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Does it back the claim? Read against the text for 6 of 18 citations: 1 supported, 5 supported in part. Each verdict is shown under its citation below, with what in the work backs the sentence.
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Links previously used in the corpus¶
Before the registry existed this work was also linked 4 other ways.
- https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781429969352/thinkingfastandslow/ ×2
- https://archive.org/details/thinkingfastslow0000kahn ×1
- https://kahneman.scholar.princeton.edu/publications ×1
- https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374275631/thinkingfastandslow/ ×1
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