Three explanations for the Kahneman-Tversky programme of the 1970s

Abstract

This article provides a historical description of the background and development of Kahneman and Tversky’s collaborative research of the 1970s and advances three explanations for their success. A first reason for the two psychologists’ triumph in economics is that they provided a friendly criticism of economics based on a re-interpretation of normative and descriptive. A second reason for their success was the new type of experiments they could use. A third reason was their effective use of intuitively appealing examples, to which not only the experimental subjects but also the readers of the articles could relate.