Amos Tversky
Israeli-American psychologist of judgement and decision-making
Psychologist who taught at Michigan, Harvard, the Hebrew University and Stanford. With Daniel Kahneman he studied cognitive illusions in judgement and developed prospect theory, a seminal work of behavioural economics.
Why this person matters
Tversky's collaboration with Kahneman produced the heuristics and biases programme and prospect theory. He died in 1996, before the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, which was awarded to Kahneman.
Main contributions
Heuristics and biases
With Kahneman, Tversky wrote a 1974 Science paper on cognitive illusions in judgement that started a cascade of related research. The MacArthur Foundation says his work showed that intuitive judgement often relies on a few simple rules that usually work but can produce systematic biases.
Prospect theory
Developed with Kahneman to explain economic choices that depart from standard rational models. The MacArthur Foundation says his research influenced economics, statistics, law, medicine and business.
Context and limits
Kahneman has said the partnership tapered off in the early 1980s. Tversky died at 59, so he took no part in later debates about the heuristics and biases programme, which this profile does not review.
In your introductory course
Thinking, language and intelligence.Appears with Kahneman in cognition chapters on heuristics, framing and decision-making, and in the history of behavioural economics.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 7.3. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1965
Received his PhD from the University of Michigan.
- 1974
Published the Science paper on cognitive illusions with Daniel Kahneman.
- 1978
Joined the Psychology Department at Stanford University.
- 1984
Received a MacArthur Fellowship.
- 1985
Elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Sources
- MacArthur Foundation, Amos Tversky, MacArthur Fellow (class of November 1984)Archive or museum. Institutional biography inspected.
- University of British Columbia Department of Psychology, In Memoriam: Dr. Daniel Kahneman (prospect theory with Tversky)University. Institutional biography inspected.
- Wikipedia, Amos TverskyReference work. Reference article inspected.