The riddle of experience vs. memory

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Daniel Kahneman at the Digital Life Design conference on January 27, 2009 in Munich, Germany.

11 a.m., February 22, 2026

Join us this Sunday, either in person or online, as we watch a video from February 2010, in which Daniel Kahneman explores the link between happiness and our selective memory.

Using examples from vacations to colonoscopies, Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman reveals how our “experiencing selves” and our “remembering selves” perceive happiness differently. This new insight has profound implications for economics, public policy — and our own self-awareness.

Widely regarded as the world’s most influential living psychologist, Kahneman won the Nobel in Economics for his pioneering work in behavioral economics — exploring the irrational ways we make decisions about risk.

Daniel Kahneman (March 5, 1934 – March 27, 2024) was an Israeli-American psychologist best known for his work on the psychology of judgement and decision-making well as behavioral economics, for which he was awarded the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economical together with Vernon L. Smith. Kahneman’s published empirical findings challenge the assumption of human rationality prevailing in modern economic theory. Kahneman became known as the “grandfather of behavioral economics.”

You can watch this 20-minute video at https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory.

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