It is only the priming-related chapter (called 'The Associative Machine' in the book) that put "too much faith in under-powered studies", as Kahneman put it[3]. Not the entire book!
The book is a synthesis of forty years of Kahneman's research and his collaboration with his late colleague, Tversky. A wide range of topics are covered; and it still absolutely merits reading. Patiently dive into the book and make up your mind.
(But yes, a v2 of this book definitely is worth it, given the "authority" of the Nobel Memorial Prize.)
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22054603
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21757524
[3] https://retractionwatch.com/2017/02/20/placed-much-faith-und...
If dark patterns start working their way into government, god help us all.
EDIT: (From Caro) Questions on these tests posed to Black people in Alabama have included: "Give the names of all sixty-seven county judges in the state", "State the date when Oklahoma was admitted to the Union", and "How many bubbles there are in a bar of soap".
There could be negatives of course, there is no substitute for an informed citizenry and indepedent media to challenge such instances.
“By default, all drivers will not be marked as organ donors.” vs “By default, all drivers will be marked as organ donors.”
“By default, all employees at companies with 401(k)s will save X% of their eligible salary in 401(k)s.”
You’re making a choice for them in any event.
I think they were right to argue as such, and wonder if MS knew that defaulting DNT to on would poison the well like that.
It’s a good argument. When people argue over what a default should be, they often don’t realize that it’s possible to have no default at all, and force an explicit choice.
I’m not a Microsoft cheerleader (nor detractor) in general, but in this case, I’m glad they took a position and chose a default on behalf of their customers.