Thinking, Fast and Slow Flashcards
What are biases?
Systematic errors that people make in the way they think about others or the world. They recur predictably in particular circumstances.
What is the ”halo effect”?
A bias that compels people to judge another person more favourably because of their good looks and confidence.
When the handsome and confident speaker bounds onto the stage, you can anticipate that the audience will judge his comments more favourably than he deserves.
What is the overarching goal of this book?
To improve our ability to identify and understand errors of judgement and choice, in others and eventually in ourselves, by providing a richer and more precise language to discuss them.
Define heuristics
Mental shortcuts or “rules of thumb“ for quickly solving problems to deliver a “good enough” result or approximation.
A reliance on heuristic thinking causes predictable biases (systematic errors) in our predictions about people and the world around us.
What is the availability heuristic?
The availability heuristic (or bias) is a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method, or decision.
This heuristic, operating on the notion that if something can be recalled, it must be important, or at least more important than alternative solutions not as readily recalled, is inherently biased toward recently-acquired information.
While they are quite useful for helping us make quick, sometimes accurate decisions, what are the downsides to judgement heuristics?
They sometimes lead to severe and systematic errors in thinking and decision-making.
What is intuitive thinking?
Going with one’s first instinct and reaching decisions quickly based on automatic cognitive processes.
Think: “gut feel”
Skill (learned through experience and knowledge) and heuristics are alternative sources of intuitive judgements and choices.
Expert intuition strikes us as magical, but it is not. Each of us performs feats of intuitive expertise many times each day. Give some examples.
- Detecting emotion like anger in the first word of a telephone call.
- Recognizing that we are the subject of conversation when we enter a room.
- Quickly reacting to subtle signs that the driver of the car in the next lane is dangerous.
The great Herbert Simon said that “intuition is nothing more and nothing less than recognition”. Explain his logic.
A given situation provides a cue; this cue gives the expert access to information stored in memory, and the information provides the answer.
Valid intuitions develop when experts have learned to recognize familiar elements in a new situation and to act in a manner that is appropriate to it.
What is the affect heuristic?
Where judgements and decisions are guided directly by feelings of liking and disliking, with little deliberation or reasoning.
What is fast thinking?
Automatic thinking.
Fast thinking includes both variants of intuitive thought—the expert and the heuristic—as well as the entirely automatic mental activities of perception and memory.
What is slow thinking?
Controlled thinking. When the spontaneous search for an intuitive solution fails, we oftentimes switch to a slower, more deliberate, and effortful form of thinking.
How are the two modes of thinking characterized in psychology?
Into System 1 and System 2:
System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with a little or no effort, and no sense of voluntary control (I.e. fast thinking).
System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it. The operations of System 2 are often associated with the subjective experience of agency choice, and concentration.
When we think of ourselves, which system do we typically identify with?
System 2: the conscious, reasoning self that has beliefs, makes choices, and decides what to think about and what to do.
How does System 1 inform and guide System 2 thinking?
System 1 effortlessly originates impressions and feelings that are the main sources of the explicit beliefs and deliberate choices of System 2.
System 2 accounts for a diverse array of operations. What one feature do they all have in common?
They require paying attention.
Any mental task that requires attention is a System 2 operation that gets disrupted when attention is drawn away.
Examples:
* Looking for your partner in a crowd.
* Walking faster than is natural for you.
* Telling someone your phone number.
* Filling out a visa application form.
* Trying to identify a bird call.
What are the four limitations of System 1?
- It has biases (systematic errors) it is prone to make in specific circumstances.
- It sometimes answers easier questions than the one it was asked.
- It has little understanding of logic and statistics.
- It cannot be turned off.
Which page of the book contains a very helpful summary of the differences between System 1 and 2, and how they play together?
Page 24 — “Plot synopsis”
System 1 and 2 are both active whether we’re awake. System 1 runs automatically and System 2 is normally in a comfortable low-effort mode, in which only a small capacity is engaged. System 1 continuously generates suggestions for System 2: impressions, intuitions, intentions, and feelings. If endorsed by System 2, intuitions turn into beliefs, and impulses into voluntary actions. When all goes smoothly, which is most of the time, System 2 adopts the suggestions of System 1 with little or no modification. You generally believe your impressions and act on your desires, and that’s fine—usually…
What other important task falls under the jurisdiction of System 2?
Overcoming the impulses of system 1; in other words, self control
What is System 1 generally very good at?
- Its models of familiar situations are accurate,
- Its short-term predictions are usually accurate as well, and
- Its initial reactions to challenges are swift and generally appropriate.
