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.
The sick do not ask if the hand that smoothes their pillow is pure, nor the dying care if the lips that touch their brow have known the kiss of sin.
I have nothing to say of my working life, only that a tie is a noose, and inverted though it is, it will hang a man nonetheless if he's not careful.
Our churches are filled with Christians who are idling in intellectual neutral. As Christians, their minds are going to waste. One result of this is an immature, superficial faith. People who simply ride the roller coaster of emotional experience are cheating themselves out of a deeper and richer Christian faith by neglecting the intellectual side of that faith.
No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross. No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ.
Ugly deeds are taught by ugly deeds.
And the end of the fight is tombstone white with the name of the late deceased, and the epitaph drear, "A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East."
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