From: L. Michael Hall

2019 Neurons #9

February 25, 2019



FAST AND SLOW THINKING



An excellent book on cognitive illusions and biases is Daniel Kahneman's
Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011).  On the surface the book is about economics
and the economic theory that Kahneman, along with Amos Tversky,
created-Prospect Theory.  Yet there is much more in the book than that-
primarily the application of a particular psychology of thinking.  And this
particular psychology of thinking explains why we humans find it difficult
to think statistically and why we over-rely on our associative meanings,
intuitions, and are so susceptible to numerous cognitive illusions and
biases.



Kahneman begins the book by distinguishing two modes of thinking which he
designates as system 1 and system 2.

System 1 -thinking automatically and quickly with little effort.  It is not
under voluntary control.  It's your first thoughts.  It's you at your
primary level of experience.

System 2 -thinking requires conscious attention, is effortful, and is
associated with focus, concentration, choice, agency (responsibility).  It
is your second thoughts.  It's you at your meta level of experience. 



In terms of Executive Thinking and getting your own Cognitive Make-Over, in
system-1 you are not actually "thinking," you are reacting according to your
programs.  You are on automatic.  It is only when you engage system-2 that
you are thinking.  I have diagramed this in the training manual as a
"thinking" continuum which separates these two dimensions- distinguishing
when you are not thinking and when you truly are thinking.



Now fast thinking is your glory and your agony.  It offers so much- a way to
simplify the world, create coherent stories that raise confidence, detect
patterns (even when there is none, p. 115) and get you to naively trust your
intuitions.  It's easy, it's comfortable, it feels good.  No wonder fast
thinking is very seductive and is also the source of flawed understandings,
inadequate decisions, and misunderstandings.  Here is a warning-with its
biases, it is filled with systemic errors.  So beware of your first
thoughts!  Those fast thoughts coming into your mind does not indicate that
you are actually thinking- you are mainly reacting from whatever belief
programs, understanding programs, etc. that you have received.



It's seductive.  You, like me, are easily seduced by the fast thinking of
system-1.  After all, with it you experience a world that is more tidy,
simple, predictable, and coherent than it really is.  This leads you to
feeling over-confident regarding whatever you are used to thinking (what we
call your comfort zone).  This explains why some people are so resistant to
change- they want to live in a tidy little world that demands little mental
effort.  "System-1 understands sentences by trying to make them true..."
(122).  Beware!  What you have thought are products of a younger self with
less experience than you have now and may be thoughts that have outlived
their usefulness.



The slow thinking of system-2 is very different.  In this kind of thinking
you proceed through a sequence of steps very deliberately and that requires
the effort of attention.  However, as Kahnaman constantly warns, we have a
limited budget of attention so expending mental effort in thinking is
costly.  That's why it is easier to not-think.  He notes that "a coherent
train of thinking requires discipline" (p. 40).  Yet system-2 is capable of
a more systematic and careful approach and is the basis of science,
intelligence, discovery, mindfulness, and wisdom.  System-2 can manage the
systemic errors of system-1 so that you do not fall victim to the built-in
biases.  Or, as we say in Neuro-Semantics, you can best manage and govern
your primary levels via your meta-levels.  That's where you set your
understanding and belief frames.



Your system-1 fast thinking sets you up to be gullible and biased to believe
(p. 81) as you are naturally prone to construct the best story possible
about what happens to you (p. 85).  This is the basis of the narrative bias
that we all suffer from- if you can create a coherent story about something,
that will suffice to convince you.  It is not truth or accuracy that
convinces us- it is coherence and a good story.  That should gives us all
pause-given the stories that the media are constantly creating for us, often
as with the Chicago story the last two weeks, jumping to conclusions before
the facts were in.



For this reason system-1 tends to just ignore or eliminate random events
which do not lend themselves to explanation.  They do not fit a tidy
predictable world.  That's why the presence of luck and probability are
difficult concepts for us to fully understand and incorporate into our
thinking and reasoning about things.  It makes statistical thinking
difficult.



In terms of doubting, that's system-2's priority.  "System-1 is not prone to
doubt.  It suppresses ambiguity and spontaneously constructs stories that
are as coherent as possible." (114).  It is system-2 that's in charge of
doubting and un-believing (81).   And "sustaining doubt is harder work than
sliding into certainty." (114).  Yet doubting and questioning lies at the
essence of thinking.  It is the doubting questions of the Meta-Model that
enables you to be more precise in your communications.  It is the
doubting-questions that gives you a chance to have a second thought before
you jump into things, merely reacting.  It is the ability to
doubtfully-question that makes you a great critical thinker so that you can
activate the executive functions in your brain.



Fast or slow thinking- we need them both.  We need them for different
reasons and purposes.  Yet without awareness of this distinction- without a
meta-awareness (a meta-state) about this, you don't even have a choice.  And
choice is one of your highest executive functions.

              For more on this from Neuro-Semantics:

                                           Executive Thinking (2018)       

                            Meta-States (2012)

                            Cognitive Make-Over Training















L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director

Neuro-Semantics

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                            

               1 970-523-7877