Noise

Imagine that two doctors give different diagnoses to identical patients, or that two judges give different sentences to people who have committed the same crime. Now imagine a doctor or a judge who makes different deci-sions depending on whether it is morning or afternoon. These are examples of noise: variability in judgments that should be identical. Wherever there is judgment, there is noise. Yet most of the time, individuáis and organizations alike are unaware of it. They neglect noise. But with a few simple remedies, we can all reduce both noise and bias, and so make far better decisions. Packed with new ideas, and drawing on the same kind of diligent, insightful research that made Thinking, Fast and Slow and Nudge groundbreaking bestsellers, Noise explains how and why humans are susceptible to noise in judgment—and what we can do about it.