Chapter 12 notes that researchers such as Kahneman and Tversky are pessimistic about our decision-making skills, whereas researchers such as Gigerenzer are more optimistic. The optimists emphasize that

"the pessimists underestimate our decision-making accuracy because of factors such as choosing questions that contradict people's schemas"

Explanation:

Thaler is together with Daniel Khaneman one of the parents of behavioral economics. This branch focuses on explaining and even looking for meaning in our economic behavior. In other words, why we make the decisions we make regarding our money.

In many social sciences, two different points of view about our rationality coexist today: the pessimist, who sees our limitations as systematic errors at the root of our possible irrational behavior; and the optimist, who conceives these limits as ecological advantages. The first point of view, the pessimist, is maintained by Tversky and Kahneman in their research program on heuristics and biases, and is also based on the theory of "little shoves" or nudges, which Thaler and Sunstein propose following that approach of Tversky and Kahneman.

The second, the optimist, has been developed by Gerd Gigerenzer and the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition (ABC) at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, and by other evolutionary psychologists such as Leda Cosmides and John Tooby.

dear friend:

  i hope this letter finds you in soaring spirits and vibrant health. as you had expressed the wish to know about culture, traditions, and unity of india in your previous letter, in the following lines i have tried my best to give you glimpses of our culture, traditions, and unity. you will be amazed to know that our culture is the oldest culture in the world and the birth place of hinduism, buddhism, jainism, and sikhism. you won’t find any other culture as varied and multi-colored, multi-lingual as ours. each region has its own unique culture, traditions, language. there are 22 official languages in india.

  basically, india is a spiritual country with orthodox traditions. for example the people of india believe in traditions set by their wise forefathers. arranged marriages, joint-family system, universal brotherhood, vegetarianism, celebrating festivals such as diwali, holi, eid, etc., are the salient features of our culture and traditions.

  another unique aspect about our country is ‘unity in diversity’. in spite of the multi-lingual, multi-religious, multi-traditional, multi-cultural society, people live peacefully together, respecting one another’s views, cultures, traditions, and differences. i am sure you would love to visit india soon, and have a first-hand experience of the multi-colored culture. give regards to uncle and aunt. do visit india with your family and experience our hospitality.

your friend,