Gerd Giger-Renser is director of the Harding Center for Risk Literacy at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. His work on decision-making, rationality, and rules of thumb includes his 2008 book, Gut Feelings, the Intelligence of the Unconscious. We'll talk about how gut feelings can help us make better decisions than a rational calculating approach.
Psychologist and author Gerd Gigerenzer of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development talks about his book Gut Feelings with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Gigerenzer argues for the power of simple heuristics--rules of thumb--over more complex models when making real-world decisions. He argues that many results in behavioral economics that appear irrational can be understood as sensible ways of coping with complexity.