Amos Tversky

Amos Tversky (March 16, 1937 - June 2, 1996) was a cognitive and mathematical psychologist, and a pioneer of cognitive science, a longtime collaborator of Daniel Kahneman, and a key figure in the discovery of systematic human cognitive bias and handling of risk. Much of his early work concerned the foundations of measurement. He was co-author of a three-volume treatise, Foundations of Measurement (recently reprinted). His early work with Kahneman focused on the psychology of prediction and probability judgment. Later, he and Kahneman originated prospect theory to explain irrational human economic choices. He received his doctorate from the University of Michigan in 1964, and later taught at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, before moving to Stanford University. In 1984 he was a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship.

Amos Tversky was married to Barbara Tversky, presently a professor in the human development department at Teachers College, Columbia University.

He also collaborated with Thomas Gilovich, Paul Slovic and Richard Thaler in several key papers.

Notable contributions

• foundations of measurement
• anchoring and adjustment
• availability heuristic
• base rate fallacy
• conjunction fallacy
• framing
• behavioral finance
• clustering illusion
• homo economicus
• loss aversion
• prospect theory
• cumulative prospect theory
• representativeness heuristic
• support theory

External links

• Stanford Faculty Senate Memorial Resolution (PDF)
• Boston Globe: The man who wasn't there
• Daniel Kahneman's autobiography for the Nobel Prize webpage contains a rich account of Tversky's personal and professional qualities and a eulogy, starting with the section "Collaboration with Amos Tversky." The work for which Kahneman received the Nobel Prize he did in collaboration with Tversky, who would have no doubt shared in the prize had he yet been alive. Daniel Kahneman – Autobiography

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