How do you think? (#3)

Pic Credits: pixabay.com/qimono

(If you stumble upon this post, I want you to know that this is a part of my personal story. As every story has a beginning and every episode/post has a context, I believe this post makes sense to you if you start from the beginning. Click here to go to the start.)

Coming to the post, the book I alluded to in my previous post was "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize-winning psychologist.

It is quite challenging to condense the entire book into a single blog post. So, I tried to pick pieces from it that seemed relevant and arranged the post in a Question(Q) and Answer(A) format. 

Q. How can we explain our thought process based on behavioural studies/as per behavioural psychology? 

A. It is easy to understand the workings of the mind if we imagine two imaginary systems in the brain with their own characteristics. System-1(Fast thinking mode) and System-2(Slow thinking mode). 

Imagine you hear a sudden, loud sound in your room. You automatically/reflexively turn in that direction. You don't think and turn. It happens almost instantaneously. This is an example of Fast thinking(System-1)

Some examples of System-1 thinking(from the book):

• Detect that one object is more distant than another.
• Complete the phrase “bread and...”
• Make a “disgust face” when shown a horrible picture. Detect hostility in a voice.
• Answer to 2 + 2 = ?
• Read words on "large" billboards.
• Drive a car on an empty road.
• Find a strong move in chess (if you are a chess master).
• Understand simple sentences.
• Recognize that a “meek and tidy soul with a passion for detail” resembles an occupational stereotype.

Now look at the following problem:

17 X 24

The answer did not come to your mind automatically and you felt that you could choose whether or not to carry out the multiplication. If you have not done yet, you should attempt it. This is an example of Slow Thinking(System-2).

Some examples of System-2 thinking(from the book):

• Brace for the starter gun in a race.
• Focus attention on the clowns in the circus.
• Focus on the voice of a particular person in a crowded and noisy room. Look for a woman with white hair.
• Search memory to identify a surprising sound.
• Maintain a faster walking speed than is natural for you.
• Monitor the appropriateness of your behaviour in a social situation. Count the occurrences of the letter "a" in a page of text.
• Tell someone your phone number.
• Park in a narrow space (for most people except garage attendants). Compare two washing machines for overall value.
• Fill out a tax form.
• Check the validity of a complex logical argument.

Q. Which system is more predominant in us? System-1 or System-2?

A. Systems 1 and 2 are both active whenever we are awake. 

System 1 runs automatically and System 2 is normally in a comfortable low-effort mode, in which only a fraction of its capacity is engaged. 

Q. Why is only a fraction of the capacity engaged of System-2?

A. One possible explanation can be "the Division of Labour"- It is a highly efficient process. It minimizes effort and optimizes performance.

Q. But I thought I am a logical thinker and believed that many thoughts of mine are based on logic and reason.  

A.  "When we think of ourselves, we identify with System 2, the conscious, reasoning self that has beliefs, makes choices, and decides what to think about and what to do. Although System 2 believes itself to be where the action is, the automatic System 1 is the hero of the book. I describe System 1 as effortlessly originating impressions and feelings that are the main sources of the explicit beliefs and deliberate choices of System 2. The automatic operations of System 1 generate surprisingly complex patterns of ideas, but only the slower System 2 can construct thoughts in an orderly series of steps."

Consider the below problem:

A bat and ball cost 110 dollars.

The bat costs 100 dollars more than the ball.

How much does the ball cost?

The number 10 dollars come to our mind almost intuitively. If that's your final answer, it is wrong. The correct answer is 5 dollars. 

(a+b =110 ; a = 100 +b)

The intuitive answer is by System-1(Fast thinking). Most of us did not check the answer (Activity of System-2) that was generated by System-1. 

It is the same for many of our everyday decisions. System 2 endorses many of our fast-thinking processes. It is a lazy system.

Q. Can I engage System-2 for more than one activity at a time (so that I can have better control of my mind)?

A. NO

Q.  How do you describe Intuition and how is it related to Fast-thinking?

A. 

Some Cognitive Biases due to System-1 thinking:

1. The Halo Effect: Our overall impression of a person influences how we feel and think about their character. We tend to believe "What is beautiful is also good" and "What is not beautiful is not good". For instance Celebrities- We perceive them as attractive, successful and often likeable so we tend to see them as intelligent, kind and funny.
2. The Availability Heuristic: We tend to use information that comes to our minds quickly and easily when making decisions about our future. (Advertising by billboards work because the product easily comes to our mind when making a buying decision) 
3. Bandwagon Effect: We adopt behaviours or beliefs because many other people are doing it. (Adopting a certain fad diet, Picking a particular stock in the stock market are examples).
4.  Planning Fallacy: We underestimate the time it will take to complete a task despite knowing that similar tasks have typically taken us much longer to complete. For instance, assignments at college. Though we know that we completed the assignments close to our deadlines in the past, we insist that we will finish the next assignment well ahead of time.
5. Anchoring Bias: We tend to rely heavily on the first piece of information we learn which can seriously impact on our decision-making. Bargaining is a good example. The opening offer serves as a reference price throughout the negotiation process. 

And there are many more. 

Browse for "Cognitive biases" and you will be surprised to find how vulnerable we are in our everyday interactions.

My takeaways:

1. This is undoubtedly a great book and definitely helped me to have a different viewpoint on many things and acquaintances. However, in my own everyday behaviour, the impact was very little.
2. It is good for intellectual discussions with people and understanding others' behaviour but it failed to help me while making my own decisions. 
3. That's when I understood that for some things (especially matters of our own mind), mere intellectualization or knowledge accumulation is not enough.
4. Furthermore, an unbelievable statistic shocked me- "Psychologists may have an elevated risk for suicidal ideation and behaviour compared to general population".

When people who tried to study behaviours and understand minds themselves are more prone to commit suicide, is there any hope?

A little hope came to me in the form of a crazy adventure- an adventure that influenced my important decisions later.

What is that adventure?

What have I discovered?

(Click here to know)