Gerd Gigerenzer (b. September 3 1947) is a German psychologist who has studied the use of bounded rationality and heuristics in decision making, especially in medicine. A critic of the work of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, he focuses on how heuristics can be used to make optimal decisions rather than their production of cognitive biases.

With Daniel Goldstein he first theorized the recognition heuristic.

He has authored several books intended for a lay audience on the subject of heuristics and decision-making, including Bounded rationality: The adaptive toolbox (2001) and Simple heuristics that make us smart (1999).

External links

• Resume (http://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/en/mitarbeiter/cv/gigerenzer-body.htm)
• Edge.org bio (http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/gigerenzer03/gigerenzer_index.html)
• Article: Simple tools for understanding risks: from innumeracy to insight (http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/327/7417/741)