1 min. 10 sec. read
Whenever we make a decision we use two modes of thinking, System 1 and System 2. You can think of System 1 and System 2 as two agents, each with their own character, abilities, limitations, and functions.
- “System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control.” (p. 20)
- “System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations. The operations of System 2 are often associated with the subjective experience of agency, choice, and concentration.” (p. 21)
System 1 Examples: When driving a car. Talking and walking. Your reaction from seeing an angry face. Reading simple sentences. Knowing right away that 2+2=4. Stereotyping people.
System 2 examples: Monitoring the appropriateness of your behavior in a social situation. Checking the validity of a complex logical argument. Comparing two washing machines for overall value. Looking for woman with white hair. Filling out a tax form.
To really simplify, you can think of System 1 as fast intuitive thinking, sometimes with errors and bias. System 2 is slow, calculative, rational thinking.
“System 1 has biases, however, systematic errors that it is prone to make in specified circumstances. (p. 25)
You can’t turn System 1 off! So System 2 has to take self control.
Examples where System 1 will give you an error.
1, Example:A bat and a ball cost $1.10. The bat cost one dollar more than the ball. How much is the bat?
You probably responded fast and said the ball cost 10 cents. This is your System 1 making the decision.
If you used System 2, you would realize the correct answer is 5 cents.
2. “Julie is currently a senior in a state university. She read fluently when she was four years old. What is her grade point average (GPA)?” (p. 186)
You probably thought 3.7 or around there. That’s wrong! That’s using System 1. In order to calculate the true odds, you need to use System 2. You need to get the base rate of the average GPA. You need to get the correlation coefficient. Then you need to anchor the base rate from the correlation coefficient.