The Science Behind Why Representation and Diversity Matters.

Nobel Prize Winner, Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking, Fast and Slow brought to light concepts that explain it.

Raji Pillay
4 min readSep 7, 2021
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Representation matters.

I and my daughter love to discuss ideas and concepts and the world in general. During one of our conversations, I decided to try an experiment I had read about.

I called out a profession, and she responded with the gender. It was an eye-opening exercise for both of us. We are always going on about equality in our house. We read books about gender equality, watch inspiring movies and discuss points of view. She, still associated some professions with a specific gender.

My daughter was more surprised than I was. Some of these professions, she probably had not even thought of.

Why? Is it inbuilt in our DNA? Why do we have these associations, even when we know better?

I found the answer in the book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman.

Let’s explore some of the ideas.

Associative Thinking

Associative thinking is fast, subconscious thinking that associates one concept with another. The ideas can involve memories…

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Raji Pillay
Raji Pillay

Written by Raji Pillay

I bring my love for books, coffee, technology and life in general to my writing. Blockchain has caught my fancy and I am exploring it as I write.