Gut feelings: biases, heuristics and Covid-19

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Chapter 2 in Nudged into Lockdown?, 2022, pp 24-53 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: I argue in this chapter that the strong global support for lockdowns arise from a particular set of cognitive errors that can be analyzed using lessons drawn from the heuristics and biases literature. I introduce readers to the distinction between "identified lives" and "statistical lives" as well as between System 1 (or intuitive thinking) and System 2 (or deliberative thinking). System 2 or deliberative thinking is especially important in situations that are unfamiliar and complex generating significant uncertainty. I explain the concept of the "availability heuristic" including notions of priming, framing and anchoring biases. I show how such cognitive errors and biases played a pronounced role both in why policy-makers resorted to lockdowns and how the general public accepted these willingly.

Keywords: Economics and Finance; Politics and Public Policy Sociology and Social Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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