Daniel Kahneman, who passed away in March 2024, received the Nobel Prize in 2002 for his contribution to which field?
- (a)Literature
- (b)Sociology
- (c)Psychology
- (d)Economics
Correct — D, Economics.
In 2002 the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Daniel Kahneman the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, shared with Vernon L. Smith.
The field of the prize is therefore Economics, and the official key marks (d).
His citation reads: "for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty."
That work — the heuristics-and-biases programme and prospect theory, built with Amos Tversky — showed that real decisions depart from the rational-choice model in predictable ways.
The idea to carry away: the field asked for is the prize category, not the laureate's own discipline.
Kahneman trained and taught as a psychologist, yet his prize sits in economic sciences, because that is the category under which the Nobel system recognised the contribution.
- (a)Literature — The 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature went to the Hungarian novelist Imre Kertész.
Kahneman's reputation as an author rests on Thinking, Fast and Slow, published in 2011, nine years after his prize; the book is a work of popular science and postdates the award.
Literature is the right answer for Imre Kertész in 2002, or for Han Kang in 2024 — laureates recognised for their novels, not for a research programme.
- (b)Sociology — The Nobel system has six prize categories: physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, peace and economic sciences.
A social scientist's work is recognised through one of these, and Kahneman's was recognised through economic sciences.
Sociology also misdescribes his subject: he studied how an individual judges and chooses under uncertainty.
Sociology is the right answer for Gunnar Myrdal's An American Dilemma (1944), a study of American race relations by the 1974 economics co-laureate — and even Myrdal's prize was in economic sciences.
- (c)Psychology — This is the trap option. Kahneman was a psychologist by training and held a professorship in psychology at Princeton University; his research partner Amos Tversky was a psychologist too.
But the stem asks for the field of the prize, and the prize awarded in 2002 was the economic-sciences prize.
Psychology is the right answer to a different question: what Kahneman's own discipline was.
The distinction matters because the Nobel categories are fixed, while laureates come from many disciplines — a psychologist can hold an economics prize.
A Nobel "field" is the category under which the prize is given.
The five prizes in Alfred Nobel's 1895 will are physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace; the economic-sciences prize was added by Sweden's central bank in 1968 and first awarded in 1969.
Laureates are placed in one of these six categories regardless of their own training.
Kahneman, a psychologist, holds the economics prize because his work on judgment under uncertainty reshaped how economists model decision-making.
Kahneman died on 27 March 2024, aged 90, which is the hook the stem uses to test a settled fact from 2002.
Behavioural economics — the field his work with Tversky helped create — later produced another laureate, Richard H. Thaler, in 2017.
The question sits at the join between two things a candidate must keep apart: the laureate's discipline (psychology) and the prize category (economic sciences).
Everything else about the item follows from that distinction.
- Daniel Kahneman (5 March 1934 – 27 March 2024) received the 2002 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
- He shared the 2002 prize with Vernon L. Smith, who was cited for establishing laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis.
- Kahneman's citation: "for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty."
- Kahneman was a psychologist by training and held the Eugene Higgins chair in psychology at Princeton University.
- With Amos Tversky he published the heuristics-and-biases paper in Science (1974) and prospect theory in Econometrica (1979).
- Tversky died in 1996; Nobel Foundation statutes since 1974 bar posthumous awards, so he could not share the 2002 prize.
- The economics prize was instituted by Sveriges Riksbank in 1968 and first awarded in 1969 to Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen.
- Alfred Nobel's 1895 will named five prizes: physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace; the first awards were made in 1901.
- The 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature went to Imre Kertész of Hungary.
- Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) popularised the System 1 (fast, intuitive) and System 2 (slow, deliberate) account of thinking.
- Richard H. Thaler received the 2017 economics prize for his contributions to behavioural economics.
- Kahneman received the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.
The field asked for is the prize category — economic sciences — not the laureate's own discipline.
- Reading 'field' as the laureate's own discipline: Kahneman was a psychologist, but the field of the 2002 prize is Economic Sciences.
- Letting a bestseller suggest Literature: Thinking, Fast and Slow appeared in 2011, nine years after the award, and the 2002 Literature prize went to Imre Kertész.
- Assuming a Nobel category for psychology or sociology: the six categories are physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, peace and economic sciences.
- Naming Amos Tversky as co-laureate: he died in 1996, and the 2002 prize was shared with Vernon L. Smith.
This question names a laureate with a recent hook — his death in March 2024 — and asks for the field of the 2002 prize.
The options set the true category beside the laureate's own discipline and a neighbouring social science, so the item turns on which of the two the stem means.
Two cited questions handle the same laureate-to-field mapping in another format: HPSC 2021 Mains GS-I Q43 matches four 2020 laureates to their prize fields, and ESE GS 2021 Q52 asks which laureate-field pair is incorrect.
A stem could also ask who shared a year's prize.
UPSC_2007_GS1_Q62007Same device — a named laureate and the field of her contribution (Wangari Maathai, sustainable development). Differs: Maathai's is the Peace Prize, and the field asked for is her area of work rather than a prize category.
UPSC_1998_GS1_Q831998Same prize — the economic-sciences prize — and the same laureate-to-field shape. Differs: it asks for the sub-area within economics (financial economics, 1997) rather than the prize category itself.
ESE_GS_2021_Q522021Same mapping of laureate to prize category, with the incorrect pair (Harvey J. Alter, a Physiology or Medicine laureate, listed under Economic Sciences) as the answer. Differs: four laureates of one year rather than one laureate's field.
HPSC_2021_MAINS_GSI_Q432021Same mapping — four 2020 laureates matched to their prize fields, with Robert B. Wilson under Economic Science. Differs: a match-the-following format from a Mains paper, testing four categories at once.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Who shared the 2002 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences with Daniel Kahneman?
- (a)Vernon L. Smith
- (b)Amos Tversky
- (c)Richard H. Thaler
- (d)Robert J. Shiller
Answera — Vernon L. Smith shared the 2002 prize, cited for establishing laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis.Tversky, Kahneman's collaborator, died in 1996 and could not be a laureate under the Nobel Foundation's rule against posthumous awards. Thaler received the prize in 2017 and Shiller in 2013.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following statements about the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences is correct?
- (a)It was instituted by Sveriges Riksbank in 1968 and is not among the prizes named in Alfred Nobel's will
- (b)It is presented in Oslo by the Norwegian Nobel Committee
- (c)It was first awarded in 1901 along with the other Nobel Prizes
- (d)It is awarded only to institutions, never to individuals
Answera — Sweden's central bank instituted the prize in 1968, on its 300th anniversary, and it was first awarded in 1969 to Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen; Nobel's 1895 will named physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace.(b) describes the Peace Prize. (c) is the first-award year of the original five prizes, not this one. (d) fails because Kahneman and Smith, both individuals, received it in 2002.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following books was written by Daniel Kahneman?
- (a)Thinking, Fast and Slow
- (b)Nudge
- (c)Poor Economics
- (d)Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Answera — Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) is Kahneman's account of the fast, intuitive System 1 and the slow, deliberate System 2.Nudge (2008) is by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein; Poor Economics (2011) is by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo; Capital in the Twenty-First Century is by Thomas Piketty.