Policy makers, like most people, normally feel that they already know all the psychology and all the sociology they are likely to need for their decisions. I don't think they are right, but that's the way it is.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the overconfidence of policy makers in their understanding of psychology and sociology.
In this quote, Daniel Kahneman suggests that policy makers, similar to many individuals, often believe they possess sufficient knowledge of psychological and sociological concepts to inform their decisions. He challenges this assumption, implying that such self-assurance may lead to flawed or uninformed decision-making, emphasizing the complexity of human behavior and social dynamics that often require deeper understanding.
In practice
During a panel discussion on governance, a speaker could use this quote to illustrate the risks of overconfidence in decision-making.
We think, each of us, that we're much more rational than we are. And we think that we make our decisions because we have good reasons to make them. Even when it's the other way around. We believe in the reasons, because we've already made the decision.
The average investor's return is significantly lower than market indices due primarily to market timing.
Banks are run by executives, and executives protect themselves, and that does not always mean that banks are going to behave rationally.
Laziness is built deep into our nature.
Through some combination of culture and biology, our minds are intuitively receptive to religion.
You are more likely to learn something by finding surprises in your own behavior than by hearing surprising facts about people in general.
Sometimes, surely, truth is closer to imagination or to intelligence, to love than to fact? To be accurate is not to be right.
Inner resistance to whatever arises in the present moment pulls you back into unconsciousness. Inner resistance is some form of negativity, complaining, fear, aggression, or anger. This is important because whenever you complain about what somebody else does you're already beginning to fall into that trap of unconsciousness.
Metaphors are our way of losing ourselves in semblances or treading water in a sea of seeming.
There is no substitute for virtue. Keep your thoughts virtuous. Rise above the filth that's all around you in this world and stand tall in strength and virtue. You can do this and you will be happier for it for as long as you live. God bless you in cherishing, developing and holding on to this great gift, the quality of personal virtue.
In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 1948) in most solemn form, the dignity of a person is acknowledged to all human beings; and as a consequence there is proclaimed, as a fundamental right, the right of free movement in search for truth and in the attainment of moral good and of justice, and also the right to a dignified life.
Hell is having to execute a pointless act from which nothing ever comes except the need to do it again.
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