Judge the Judges: With Guests Daniel Kahneman, James Hutchinson & G.M. Pucilowski

<p>Many episodes of this podcast deal with cognitive biases that can hinder our decision-making abilities. In this episode of <i>Choiceology with </i><a href="http://www.katherinemilkman.com/"><i>Katy Milkman</i></a>, we look at a different kind of error: how completely irrelevant information can negatively influence our judgments, making them varied and unpredictable.</p><p>This variability of human judgment—or <i>noise</i>—is the topic of a new book by Nobel Prize-winning economist <a href="https://scholar.princeton.edu/kahneman/home">Daniel Kahneman</a>, with <a href="https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10871/Sunstein">Cass Sunstein</a> and <a href="https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/about-us/people/olivier-sibony">Olivier Sibony</a>. You’ll hear an interview with Kahneman later in the episode where he explains his preoccupation with the substantial and expensive effects of noise. He proposes ways to reduce the problem of noise for industries, businesses, and individuals who need to make more objective judgements.</p><p>But first, we’ll dive into the world of wine judging. <a href="http://www.universityofwine.com/GMP-Bio.htm">G.M. “Pooch” Pucilowski</a> will take you on a guided tour of the <a href="https://www.castatefair.org/california-commercial-wine/">California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition</a>. You’ll hear about the criteria for judging different varietals—and the accompanying challenges that wine judges face as they swirl, sniff, and sip through dozens and sometimes hundreds of different wines. </p><p>After years of coordinating and observing the judges, Pooch noticed a large amount of variability in the results. This may not be surprising, since taste is subjective. But after some tweaks to the process, he even began to notice that judges were inconsistent with themselves!</p><p>Enter vintner and retired oceanographer Robert Hodgson. Pooch teamed up with Hodgson to devise a way to study and improve the consistency of wine judging and push for a more objective competition. The results were promisin