Maya Bar-Hillel ( he, מיה בר-הלל, born 1943) is a professor emeritus of psychology at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

. Known for her work on inaccuracies in human reasoning about

probability Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an Event (probability theory), event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and ...

, she has also studied

decision theory Decision theory (or the theory of choice; not to be confused with choice theory) is a branch of applied probability theory concerned with the theory of making decisions based on assigning probabilities to various factors and assigning numerical ...

in connection with

Newcomb's paradox In philosophy and mathematics, Newcomb's paradox, also known as Newcomb's problem, is a thought experiment involving a game between two players, one of whom is able to predict the future. Newcomb's paradox was created by William Newcomb of the Uni ...

, investigated how

gender stereotyping A gender role, also known as a sex role, is a social role encompassing a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on that person's sex. Gender roles are usually cente ...

can block human problem-solving, and worked with

Dror Bar-Natan Dror Bar-Natan ( he, דרוֹר בָר-נָתָן; born January 30, 1966) is a professor at the University of Toronto Department of Mathematics, Canada. His main research interests include knot theory, finite type invariants, and Khovanov homology ...

Gil Kalai Gil Kalai (born 1955) is the Henry and Manya Noskwith Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, Professor of Computer Science at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, and adjunct Professor of mathematics ...

, and Brendan McKay to debunk the

Bible code The Bible code ( he, הצופן התנ"כי, ), also known as the Torah code, is a purported set of encoded words within a Hebrew text of the Torah that, according to proponents, has predicted significant historical events. The statistical like ...

Education and career

Bar-Hillel studied psychology with

Amos Tversky Amos Nathan Tversky ( he, עמוס טברסקי; March 16, 1937 – June 2, 1996) was an Israeli cognitive and mathematical psychologist and a key figure in the discovery of systematic human cognitive bias and handling of risk. Much of his ...

at the Hebrew University, where she earned bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics and a Ph.D. in psychology. Her 1975 doctoral dissertation, ''The Base-Rate Fallacy in Subjective Judgments of Probability'', introduced the concept of the

base rate fallacy The base rate fallacy, also called base rate neglect or base rate bias, is a type of fallacy in which people tend to ignore the base rate (i.e., general prevalence) in favor of the individuating information (i.e., information pertaining only to a ...

in probabilistic reasoning. At the Hebrew University, she was the director of the Center for the Study of Rationality from 2001 to 2005.

Family

Bar-Hillel is the daughter of Israeli philosopher and linguist

Yehoshua Bar-Hillel Yehoshua Bar-Hillel ( he, יהושע בר-הלל; 8 September 1915, in Vienna – 25 September 1975, in Jerusalem) was an Israeli philosopher, mathematician, and linguist. He was a pioneer in the fields of machine translation and formal linguis ...

. Her daughter,

Gili Bar-Hillel Gili Bar-Hillel Semo ( he, גילי בר-הלל סמו; born Gili Bar-Hillel in 1974) is an English-Hebrew translator from Israel, best known for translating the '' Harry Potter'' series into Hebrew. Biography Bar-Hillel is the daughter of Maya B ...

, is the Hebrew translator of the

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

books.

Recognition

Bar-Hillel won the

Rothschild Prize Yad Hanadiv (The Rothschild Foundation) is a Rothschild family philanthropic foundation in Israel. Goals and objectives Yad Hanadiv defines its mission as: Dedicated to creating resources for advancing Israel as a healthy, vibrant, democratic s ...

for

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

in 2018, and the

George Pólya Award The George Pólya Award is presented annually by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) for articles of expository excellence that have been published in The College Mathematics Journal. The award was established in 1976 and up to two aw ...

of the

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure a ...

with

Ruma Falk Ruma Falk ( he, רומה פלק, née Oren-Aharonovich, 1932–2020) was an Israeli psychologist and philosopher of mathematics known for her work on probability theory and human understanding of probability and statistics. Life Falk was born ...

in 1984 for their joint work on probability.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bar-Hillel, Maya 1943 births Living people Israeli psychologists Israeli women psychologists Hebrew University of Jerusalem faculty