Daniel Kahneman Quotes

Given a choice between two bald political candidates, the American people will vote for the less bald of the two.

People in the voting booth are not purely rational creatures any more than they're purely rational creatures outside the voting booth.

I'm saying there is no way that I will do this, because it's really not me. I know my strengths, and governor Romney needs to find someone who wants to run with him. There are many people who will do it very, very well, and I'll support the ticket.

We perceive, we remember our experiences, we make judgments, we act - and in all of these endeavors, we are influenced by factors that we aren't aware of.

I think that when Americans go to vote, states should not list what party the candidates are affiliated with. That would require voters to actually think and get to know a candidate instead of voting for their favorite gang. 'Oh, this guy is a Republican, so he must be good.'

Research has shown that the perceived style of leadership is by far the most important thing to most voters in evaluating officeholders and candidates.

It's interesting, because I tend to trust a man with big ears.

We all know that looks matter. What most of us don't understand is just how much looks matter and how difficult it is for us to ignore a person's appearance when making a social judgment.

We are very influenced by completely automatic things that we have no control over, and we don't know we're doing it.

There's an enormous difference between voting for a candidate because you hate another ethnic group and voting for a candidate because he's a member of your ethnic group.

Sometimes, people aren't as consciously aware of their decisions as they should be.

Throughout this primary process the voters have vetted each candidate and after a spirited contest they have made clear who they believe is right person to lead our ticket and that is Governor Mitt Romney. I believe they have come to this conclusion because they know that Governor Romney will begin working on day one to turn around our economy.

The average American expends more time becoming informed about choosing a car than choosing a candidate. But, then, the consequences of the former choice are immediate and discernible.

It is very comforting to believe that leaders who do terrible things are, in fact, mad. That way, all we have to do is make sure we don't put psychotics in high places and we've got the problem solved.

People vote for their dreams and fears.

The general assumption of the democratic process is that you identify candidates who come closest to you in terms of values and positions. The problem is many voters are never given the kind of information they need to make the decision.

Electoral choices are relatively invulnerable to direct argumentation and characterized more by faith than by conviction and by wishful expectation rather than careful prediction of consequences.

I don't think that 60-70 percent of working-class white voters would have supported a Muslim ban before Donald Trump said something about a Muslim ban.

I'm the kind of person that believes there's a part of your voting that has to be purely on principle, and there's a part that has to be on strategy.

Quite frankly, Oklahomans are pretty smart. They know how to choose candidates.

Political science has long tried to tackle a fundamental question of voter behavior: Do voters choose politicians because those politicians hold views that they like, or do voters choose policy positions because the politicians they like say those positions are correct?

Florida is not going to vote for a con artist like Donald Trump.

Elections are a good deal like marriages. There's no accounting for anyone's taste. Every time we see a bridegroom we wonder why she ever picked him, and it's the same with public officials.

In general it may be said that the things which we take for granted without inquiry or reflection are just the things which determine our conscious thinking and decide our conclusions. And these habitudes which lie below the level of reflection are just those which have been formed in the constant give and take of relationship with others.

Now if you expand their choice set. Say you give them 20 different speed dates, everything goes out the window. Everybody starts choosing in accordance with looks because that becomes the easiest criteria by which to weed out all the options and decide "So who am I going to say yes to?"