You're surprised by something, but you don't really know what surprised you; you recognize someone, but you don't really know what cues cause you to recognize that person.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the complexity of human perception and recognition.
In this quote, Daniel Kahneman highlights the often unconscious processes of our minds that influence our reactions and recognitions. It emphasizes that many of our responses stem from implicit cues that we may not be aware of, suggesting that our understanding of the world is often guided by subconscious influences.
In practice
In a psychology lecture discussing cognitive biases, one may reference Kahneman's quote to illustrate the intricacies of human perception.
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.
In man, the things which are not measurable are more important than those which are measurable.
Let us fight the battle-retreat from the things that attract us and rouse ourselves to meet the things that actually attack us.
There is a crisis of public morality. Instead of policing bedrooms, we ought to be doing a better job policing boardrooms.
In a brutal country like ours, where human life is 'cheap', it's stupid to destroy yourself for the sake of your beliefs. Beliefs? High ideas? Only people in rich countries can enjoy such luxuries.
Time goes faster the more hollow it is. Lives with no meaning go straight past you, like trains that donβt stop at your station.
The question of whether one alleges the Superiority or Inferiority of any given race is irrelevant; racism has only one psychological root: the racist's sense of his own Inferiority.
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