Dual process theory Flashcards
What is dual systems and dual process models?
When we’re making decisions, we use two different systems of thinking. System 1 is our intuition or gut-feeling: fast, automatic, emotional, and subconscious. System 2 is slower and more deliberate: consciously working through different considerations, applying different concepts and models and weighing them all up.
Our System 1 (intuition) is more accurate in areas where we’ve gathered a lot of data with reliable and fast feedback, like social dynamics. You know if you insult someone, they’ll probably react by getting sad or defensive. That’s because our intuition has been ‘trained’ by repeatedly witnessing occurrences and receiving fast feedback on the consequences. Whereas our System 2 tends to be better for decisions where we don’t have a lot of experience; involving numbers, statistics, logic, abstractions, or models.
What is system 1 and 2?
• System 1 o Fast/automatic o Emotional Impulses Drives Habits Beliefs • System 2 o Slow/effortful o Logical Reflection Planning Problem solving
What is elaboration likelihood model (ELM)?
- The model aims to explain different ways of processing stimuli, why they are used, and their outcomes on attitude change.
- The ELM proposes two major routes to persuasion: the central route and the peripheral route.
o Under the central route, persuasion will likely result from a person’s careful and thoughtful consideration of the true merits of the information presented in support of an advocacy. The central route involves a high level of message elaboration in which a great amount of cognition about the arguments are generated by the individual receiving the message. The results of attitude change will be relatively enduring, resistant, and predictive of behavior.
o Under the peripheral route, persuasion results from a person’s association with positive or negative cues in the stimulus or making a simple inference about the merits of the advocated position. The cues received by the individual under the peripheral route are generally unrelated to the logical quality of the stimulus. These cues will involve factors such as the credibility or attractiveness of the sources of the message, or the production quality of the message. The likelihood of elaboration will be determined by an individual’s motivation and ability to evaluate the argument being presented.
What is The Reflective-impulsive model (RIM)?
The model suggests that social cognition and behavior are the outcome of two broad systems of information processing, the reflective system and the impulsive system.
• Impulsive and reflective processes often operate in parallel and jointly influence behavior
o E.g. The decision process for a house purchase may include an evaluation of functional costs and benefits, but also feelings about architectural design. Moreover, the two systems may influence each other
What is Intuitive vs. Reflective Model?
- Intuitive thinking means going with one’s first instinct and reaching decisions quickly based on automatic cognitive processes. Reflective thinking involves the questioning of first instinct and consideration of other possibilities, thus allowing for counterintuitive decisions.
- While positive mood appears to lead to a greater intuitive dominance, negative mood seems to foster reflective processing
What is Heuristics?
Heuristics play important roles in both problem-solving and decision-making. When we are trying to solve a problem or make a decision, we often turn to these mental shortcuts when we need a quick solution. Reasons that we rely on heuristics:
• Attribute substitution: Theories suggest people substitute simpler but related questions in place of more complex and difficult questions.
• Effort reduction: According to this theory, people utilize heuristics as a type of cognitive laziness. Heuristics reduce the mental effort required to make choices and decisions.
• Fast and frugal: Still other theories argue that heuristics are actually more accurate than they are biased. In other words, we use heuristics because they are fast and usually correct.
What is Bounded rationality ?
Humans inherently have a limited capacity for controlled, deliberate or systematic thinking. This has been referred to as ‘bounded rationality’, restrictions in the processing of information to arrive at decisions due to limits in knowledge (information), available time, and computational capacities
What is bias?
• Bias refers to the phenomenon that people systematically and predictably deviate from the optimal/correct judgement or decision.
• Bias often occurs when decision heuristics are applied (System 1)
• Bias can occur:
o By the nature of the judgement/decision
o Directed through the way a choice/problem is presented: “choice architecture”
• Acquiescence bias = tendency to say yes
What is Acquiescence bias?
tendency to say yes
What is Intertemporal decisions/ present bias?
• If now is much more valuable than next week, month, year: long- term investments become unattractive
• The modern day is however based on the ability to trade-off future gains against current losses. For example:
o Studying hard for the next exam/studying at all
o Saving money for retirement
o Exercising for long-term health
o Restraint eating for the next beach vacation
o Sustainable behaviour against global warming
What is Reference points/ loss aversion?
- People often make decisions based on a reference point they compare different outcomes to.
- Compared to this reference, individuals respond differently to perceived losses than perceived gains (core idea of the prospect theory)
- Being more risk averse to losses than gains in similar magnitude is commonly observed.
What is Will power & ego depletion: if really real?
• Ego-depletion is a distinct concept arguing that will power (ability to resist temptation) is a limited resource that can be exhausted
• Implication is that the more you resist temptation over a short period of time, the more likely you are to fail.
• Example:
o resisting the temptation to eat chocolates and cookies caused people subsequently to give up faster on difficult problems (Baumeister et al. 1998)
o Facing too complex decision can also deplete willpower (too many alternatives or attributes)
What is hot/cool models?
Hot/Cool dual system framework, where the dynamics of willpower are played out between a cool, cognitive “know” and a hot, emotional “go” system
• The hot system is reflexive, impulsive, and controlled by the stimulus, which is often characterized by conditioned responding, while the cool system is slow, episodic, and strategic
What is Hot-cold empathy gap?
- Aligning behaviour with long-term goals suffers from an additional issue termed: the hot-cold empathy gap
- This gap refers to the difficult of individuals to anticipate their own suseptability to different environmental cues when in a „hot“ state (i.e. hungry, angry, sexually arroused, ego-depleted)
- Increases tendency to overestimate futue self-regulation „I eat the cake now and resist later“
- Reduces the perceived necessity to regulate your environment to be „hot-state proofed“ (i.e. lock the candy away, engage in self- commitment strategies)
Which system is used when deciding to use the DRS?
Since there is a lot of pre-coded knowledge about sustainability in people’s brains I would argue: System 1, peripheral route (ELM), heuristic (HSM), impulsive (RIM). There is an element of intertemporal decision making because adopting sustainable behavior results in long-term concept of global warming
