Amos Tversky
Early Life and Education
Amos Tversky was born on March 16, 1937, in Haifa, British Mandate for Palestine (now Israel). His parents, Genia and Yosef Tversky, were both highly educated and instilled a love of learning in their son from a young age. Tversky completed his high school education at the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa, where he excelled in his studies.
Tversky went on to study philosophy and psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, earning his bachelor's degree in 1961. He then moved to the United States to pursue his doctoral studies at the University of Michigan, where he specialized in mathematical psychology, a field that uses mathematical formulas and models to describe psychological phenomena.
Career and Research
After earning his Ph.D. in 1965, Tversky returned to Israel and joined the faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He quickly established himself as a leading figure in the field of cognitive psychology, with his research focusing on decision-making, judgment, and probability theory.
In the early 1970s, Tversky began a fruitful collaboration with Daniel Kahneman, a fellow psychologist at the Hebrew University. Together, they developed prospect theory, a groundbreaking model of decision-making under uncertainty. This theory, which contradicts the traditional economic model of rational decision-making, posits that people make decisions based on the potential value of losses and gains rather than the final outcome.
Tversky and Kahneman's work on prospect theory and their subsequent research on cognitive biases and heuristics have had a profound impact on a wide range of disciplines, including economics, law, medicine, political science, and artificial intelligence. Their work has also been instrumental in the development of behavioral economics, a field that combines insights from psychology and economics to explain human decision-making.
In 1978, Tversky moved to the United States and joined the faculty of Stanford University, where he continued his research and teaching until his death in 1996.
Legacy and Impact
Tversky's contributions to psychology and economics have been widely recognized and celebrated. His work with Kahneman on prospect theory earned them the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, although Tversky, having passed away in 1996, was not eligible to receive the award.
Despite his death, Tversky's influence continues to be felt in numerous fields. His work on cognitive biases and heuristics has helped shape the way we understand human decision-making and has had a significant impact on policy-making, business strategy, and medical decision-making.