Gerd Gigerenzer: biography and work of this psychologist.

He is one of the researchers of "bounded rationality", the study of mental shortcuts.

Gerd Gigerenzer is a well-known German psychologist, currently head of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.currently head of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and the Harding Center of Risk Literacy. He is an important author who, in addition to his previous positions, has studied and analyzed the role of heuristics and intuition in decision making in our lives.

Throughout this article we will make a brief review of his figure, by means of a brief biography of Gerd Gigerenzer and a look at his main contributions to the field of psychology.

A brief biography of Gerd Gigerenzer

Gerd Gigerenzer was born in Wallersdorf, Germany, on September 3, 1947. During his youth he showed artistic interests, and in fact he has mentioned in some interviews to have played the banjo and even to have played in the group "The Munich Beefeaters" that would put the soundtrack to the first television commercial for Volkswagen Golf. However, at a certain point he decided to leave that world and turn to the academic world.

He graduated from the University of Munich with a degree in psychology.D. in psychology at the same university in 1977 with a thesis analyzing nonmetric multidimensional scaling as a model of judgment behavior (Nonmetrische multidimensionale Skalierung als Modell des Urteils Verhaltens). In the same year he would start working as a professor of psychology at the same institution that had trained him.

In 1984 he moved to the University of Konstanz, where he stayed until 1990, when he moved again to the University of Salzburg. Two years later he left this position to work as a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago.

During his tenure as a professor, he would be the doctoral tutor of another great and renowned psychologist, Daniel Goldstein, with whom he would begin to theorize on the recognition and heuristic processing of reality. theorize about the recognition and heuristic processing of reality..

It would be in 1995 when, in view of his contribution to the psychological field, he would be appointed director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, a position he still holds today. Since 2008, he has also directed the Harding Center for Risk Literacy. He also directed the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition (ABC) at the same institute. He married Lorraine Daston, a well-known historian of science and a leading authority on the history of the scientific and intellectual development of European modernity, with whom he has a daughter.

His life today

He is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences as well as the German Academy of Sciences and an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. In the course of his career he has received numerous awards, such as the German Psychology Award, and the German Academy of Sciences.He has received numerous awards, such as the German Psychology Award, and holds several honorary doctorates from other universities, such as the Open University of the Netherlands. His publications are also highly recognized, among them the following stand out Instinctive Decisions. The Intelligence of the Unconscious (Calculated Risks, Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious). Finally, he is involved in several projects, such as one in which he works jointly with the Bank of England, "Simple heuristics for a safer World".

His work and areas of research.

Gerd Gigerenzer's contributions to the field of psychology are many, of which we will mention some of the best known.

Elements that stand out throughout his career are his interest in aspects such as decision making, the role of heuristics, time constraint and time constraint.The role of heuristics, the restriction of time and uncertainty in it and the great power of intuition, social intelligence, risk communication and the training and strategies of doctors, judges and managers in decision making.

Of these, perhaps the best known is the defense of the role of intuition in decision making, which has traditionally been seen as aberrant and choice-impairing. Contrary to most authors, Gigerenzer argues that most people make decisions based on their intuitions, which are based on unconscious intelligence.

The author also indicates that intuition is a product of evolution, the result of learning the rules that our species has been acquiring and incorporating into its repertoire. This is used in making all kinds of decisions, especially those involving emotional elements such as the choice of a partner.

Mental shortcuts are useful

Studies conducted at the Max-Planck Institute show that, contrary to what logic would seem to dictate, people who are guided by mental shortcuts are more likely to make the right decisions, people who are guided by intuition tend to make effective decisions when using shortcuts. by employing shortcuts. These mental shortcuts save cognitive resources and enable quick decisions to be made, and the strategies used for this purpose are called heuristics. However, a logical analysis requires locating and analyzing all possibilities, something that requires time and generates a less efficient choice.

The risk exists in choosing the rule that can best be applied to each case, something that, for example, could have negative consequences in the formation of prejudices and stereotypes, which could lead to cognitive biases. In these cases, the problem would be that one of the rules learned and acquired throughout the subject's own life is being generalized, but not one applicable to the particular case in question.

Another of the elements for which it is best known is the idea of the "Adaptive Tool". the idea of the "Adaptative Toolbox", which mainly proposes that we have at our disposal a set of rules learned and acquired throughout the subject's own life, but not one applicable to the particular case in question.which mainly proposes that we have different cognitive systems, using one or the other depending on how we need to adapt to a given situation. Different domains of thought require different cognitive mechanisms, this idea being contrary to the existence of a universal strategy.

Bibliographical references:

• Gigerenzer, G. (2008). Instinctive decisions. The intelligence of the unconscious. Barcelona: Editorial Ariel.
• Gigerenzer, G & Selten, R. (2001). Bounded Rationality: The Adaptive Toolbox. Dahlem Workshop Reports.
• Corrales, E. (2010). Intuition as a cognitive process. Communication, Year 31, 19 (2): 33-42.