"Daniel Kahneman, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his seminal work in psychology that challenged the rational model of judgment and decision making, is one of our most important thinkers. His ideas have had a profound and widely regarded impact on many fields - including economics, medicine, and politics - but until now, he has never brought together his many years of research and thinking in one book. ... [He] explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities - and also the faults and biases - of fast thinking, and reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behavior. ... reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives - and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble"--From jacket.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the Nobel Prize-winning author of Thinking, Fast and Slow and the coauthor of Nudge, a revolutionary exploration of why people make bad judgments and how to make better ones--"a tour de force" ( New York Times ). Imagine that two doctors in the same city give different diagnoses to identical patients--or that two judges in the same courthouse give markedly different sentences to people who have committed the same crime. Suppose that different interviewers at the same firm make different decisions about indistinguishable job applicants--or that when a company is handling customer complaints, the resolution depends on who happens to answer the phone. Now imagine that the same doctor, the same judge, the same interviewer, or the same customer service agent makes different decisions depending on whether it is morning or afternoon, or Monday rather than Wednesday. These are examples of noise: variability in judgments that should be identical. In Noise , Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, and Cass R. Sunstein show the detrimental effects of noise in many fields, including medicine, law, economic forecasting, forensic science, bail, child protection, strategy, performance reviews, and personnel selection. Wherever there is judgment, there is noise. Yet, most of the time, individuals and organizations alike are unaware of it. They neglect noise. With a few simple remedies, people can reduce both noise and bias, and so make far better decisions. Packed with original ideas, and offering the same kinds of research-based insights that made Thinking, Fast and Slow and Nudge groundbreaking New York Times bestsellers, Noise explains how and why humans are so susceptible to noise in judgment--and what we can do about it.

"How Doctors Think is a window into the mind of the physician and an insightful examination of the all-important relationship between doctors and their patients. In this myth-shattering work, Jerome Groopman explores the forces and thought processes behind the decisions doctors make. He pinpints why doctors succeed and why they err. Most important, Groopman shows when and how doctors can - with our help - avoid snap judgments, embrace uncertainty, communicate effectively, and deploy other skills that can profoundly impact our health." --

This book offers advice on making medical decisions inspite of confusing and conflicting information, provides insight into the personal beliefs influencing how choices are made while citing the marketing practices that complicate the process. Making the right medical choices is harder than ever. Whether deciding on a cholesterol drug or choosing a cancer treatment, we are overwhelmed by information from all sides: our doctors' recommendations, dissenting expert opinions, confusing statistics, conflicting media reports, the advice of friends, claims on the Internet, and a never-ending stream of drug company ads. This book shows us how to chart a clear path through this sea of confusion. Both doctor, the authors reveal that each of us has a set of deeply rooted beliefs whose profound influence we may not realize when we make medical decisions. Recognizing our preferences and the external factors that might lead our thinking astray can make a dramatic, even lifesaving, difference in our medical decision making. The authors drew on research and insights from patients, doctors, psychologists, economists, and other experts to help reveal the array of forces that can aid or impede our thinking. Ultinately, this is a chronicle of how ordinary people, landing at a medical crossroads, must decide about care, who should provide it, and for how long. -- From publisher description.

"One of the greatest challenges patients and their families face is how to evaluate and act on medical advice. Swept up in the rush of events, anxious about the prognosis, facing a blur of technical jargon, fatigued from worry or pain, people who are ill are easily overwhelmed by treatment choices. Told in eight gripping clinical dramas, [this book] reveals the forces at play in making critical medical decisions. Dr. Jerome Groopman illuminates the world of medicine, where knowledge is imperfect, no therapy is without risks, and the outcome is never fully predictable. It portrays moments of astute diagnosis and misguided perception, of lifesaving triumphs and shattering failures. These real-life lessons prepare us to traverse the uncertain terrain of illness, and enable us to balance intuition and information, and thereby make the best possible decisions about our health and future.

Integrating theory with realistic case studies, this book examines the practical application of moral theory in clinical decision-making. With forty composite cases based on actual clinical experiences, the author describes key moral problems raised by modern medicine. He then demonstrates how these dilemmas can be resolved using a problem-solving framework termed pluralistic casuistry. This approach is pluralistic in that it accepts the relevance of many different moral grounds, drawn from different traditional moral theories, each of which may seem self-contained and hence in conflict with other claims. Consequently, the author stresses the need to achieve a synthesis of these traditional moral theories, rather than treating them as competitors. His approach is casuistrical in the sense that it considers the important differences between the cases at issue and applies the different moral appeals in different ways. The richly detailed case studies will challenge readers, clarify the ethical issues involved, and indicate how theory and practice can be integrated. Containing a multiplicity of factors faced in clinical crises, they are ideal for group discussions concerning the ways in which theory relates to actual life-or-death situations.