People’s mood is really determined primarily by their genetic make-up and personality, and in the second place by their immediate context, and only in the third and fourth place by worries and concerns and other things like that. – Daniel Kahneman
You know, the standard state for people is ‘mildly pleasant.’ Negative emotions are quite rare, and extremely positive emotions are rare. But people are mildly pleased most of the time, they’re mildly tired a lot of the time, and they wish they were somewhere else a substantial part of the time – but mostly they’re mildly pleased. – Daniel Kahneman
Happiness is determined by factors like your health, your family relationships and friendships, and above all by feeling that you are in control of how you spend your time. – Daniel Kahneman
Adaptation seems to be, to a substantial extent, a process of reallocating your attention. – Daniel Kahneman
Most of the time, we think fast. And most of the time we’re really expert at what we’re doing, and most of the time, what we do is right. – Daniel Kahneman
If people are failing, they look inept. If people are succeeding, they look strong and good and competent. That’s the ‘halo effect.’ Your first impression of a thing sets up your subsequent beliefs. If the company looks inept to you, you may assume everything else they do is inept. – Daniel Kahneman
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. – Daniel Kahneman
Banks are run by executives, and executives protect themselves, and that does not always mean that banks are going to behave rationally. – Daniel Kahneman
Psychologists really aim to be scientists, white-coat stuff, with elaborate statistics, running experiments. – Daniel Kahneman
People who know math understand what other mortals understand, but other mortals do not understand them. This asymmetry gives them a presumption of superior ability. – Daniel Kahneman
It doesn’t take many observations to think you’ve spotted a trend, and it’s probably not a trend at all. – Daniel Kahneman
The experiencing self lives in the moment; it is the one that answers the question, ‘Does it hurt?’ or ‘What were you thinking about just now?’ The remembering self is the one that answers questions about the overall evaluation of episodes or periods of one’s life, such as a stay in the hospital or the years since one left college. – Daniel Kahneman