Noise
A Flaw in Human Judgment
by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony & Cass R. Sunstein
Editorial review
If 'Thinking, Fast and Slow' was about bias, 'Noise' is about variance — the often invisible inconsistency that makes the same case decided differently by the same expert on a different day. The lessons are uncomfortable for any organization that makes judgments at scale.
AI-generated summary
Kahneman, Sibony, and Sunstein argue that variability in human judgment — 'noise' — is as serious a problem as bias, and is endemic in organizations from courtrooms to insurance to medicine. They propose 'decision hygiene' as the cure.
Key takeaways
- 1
Two judgments by the same expert on the same case can vary wildly — and usually do.
- 2
Noise audits are practical and most organizations should run them.
- 3
Aggregating independent judgments reduces noise even without removing bias.
- 4
Structured procedures often outperform unstructured expertise.
The right reader
Leaders of organizations that make repeated judgments at scale: medicine, hiring, lending, sentencing, insurance, performance review.
What it touches
How it reads
Rigorous, organizational.
Reading difficulty: Moderate
