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person1980s-present

Philip Tetlock

Disciplines:
psychology
political science

Summary

American psychologist who conducted the most rigorous long-term study of expert political forecasting — finding that experts perform barely better than random chance — and subsequently studied the characteristics of 'superforecasters.'

Core Contribution

Expert Political Judgment: twenty years of data showing that political experts' predictions are barely better than dart-throwing chimps. Foxes vs. hedgehogs: foxes (who know many things) outperform hedgehogs (who know one big thing) in forecasting. Superforecasting: a small subset of ordinary people who apply probabilistic thinking consistently can outforecast intelligence analysts.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • His study found that Isaiah Berlin's fox/hedgehog distinction predicts forecasting accuracy — a rare case of a literary metaphor having genuine empirical content.

Notable Works & Achievements

Expert Political Judgment

Superforecasting

Historical Influences

Isaiah Berlin Karl Popper

Intellectual Lineage

Political Psychology Decision Science

Contemporaries & Peers

Daniel Kahneman Jonathan Haidt

Minds Influenced

ForecastingIntelligence Community

Intellectual Posterity

Forecasting ResearchGood Judgment Project

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