Scales out of scale Habit of mind to put dissimilar things together 2011 onwards
Level matching, as discussed by Daniel Kahneman, is the human cognitive tendency to force things of different natures, which are not inherently comparable, to be placed on the same scale. When given a number or a standard, people intuitively try to put them together and understand them before examining whether or not they are appropriate. For example, the ability to read a book at the age of four is equated with a height of 18 centimeters, and information of completely different dimensions is evaluated on a single scale.
This tendency is especially noticeable in situations where intuitive thinking is strongly at work. Humans are good at conjuring up representative images and averages, but are not good at actually counting or accurately processing totals and probabilities. Therefore, when faced with complex judgments, they tend to push information onto a single scale that is easy to comprehend. This is level matching, which can be effective as a simplification of judgment but can also cause a loss of accuracy.
In contemporary society, this property can easily cause problems in evaluation systems and comparative cultures. Inherently multifaceted concepts such as academic achievement, income, ability, and happiness are compared with a single numerical value, and apparent clarity is prioritized. Studies in behavioral economics and cognitive psychology have repeatedly shown that the conflation of these disparate measures leads to faulty decision-making and unfair evaluations. The web has also introduced the impact of level matching on everyday decisions through the fast-and-slow theory and explanations of cognitive biases.
Level matching is both a convenience for humans to quickly understand the world and a pitfall in thinking. Being aware that we are putting different things on the same scale is the first step toward making judgments that are not influenced by intuition.
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