System 1 and System 2 describe what happens in the brain when you make decisions. From a cognitive-psychological point of view, there is a lot going on. But do you think about whether you wash, brush your teeth and get dressed when you get up? Probably not, because it would take an enormous amount of energy throughout the day if we were to make these decisions consciously all the time.
This is why there are two systems in the brain, which Daniel Kahneman describes in more detail in his best-selling book "Fast Thinking, Slow Thinking":
- System 1, which processes fast, arbitrary, automatic and effortless thinking (for example, brushing teeth).
- System 2, which focuses attention on the strenuous mental activities and makes more complex calculations. This is often accompanied by concentration, freedom of decision and power to act.
When we think of ourselves, we tend to identify with System 2, the conscious and logical thinking self. System 2 believes it is at the centre of our thinking. But it is system 1, where the spontaneous impressions and feelings arise, that controls our behaviour. To do this, it draws on complex patterns of ideas.
So we are not as rational as we like to think.
Vmany people trust their intuitions too much, says author and Nobel laureate in economics Kahneman. But it is precisely this trust in intuition that has immense effects in many areas of life and entails bias effects. Cognitive psychologist Kahneman describes the interplay of the two systems as follows:
System 1 runs automatically and system 2 is in low-effort mode, using only part of its capacity. System 1 continuously makes suggestions to system 2, through impressions, intuitions, intentions and feelings. If these impressions and intuitions are supported by system 2, they become beliefs, which as an impulse become volitionally controlled actions. System 2 therefore does not modify the suggestions of system 1 and you simply trust its impressions and impulses. System 2 becomes active when system 1 cannot find an answer to a question. This way of working is extremely efficient because it minimises effort and optimises brain power. It would simply be too much to think about every stimulus in the environment.
An example of when your System 2 becomes active is this task from Kahneman's "Think fast, think slow".
Just read the text and answer the question. A person was described by a neighbour as follows:
"Steve is very shy and withdrawn, always helpful but hardly interested in others or in reality. A gentle and tidy person, he has a need for order and structure and a passion for detail."
Is Steve more of a librarian or a farmer?
What have you decided?
Do you think Steve is more of a librarian? What do you base this decision on? Can't a farmer also be secretive, helpful, gentle and have a need for order? Actually, yes, but you have probably formed an image in your head based on the given information (which in principle says little). Because you lack solid information, you fill this gap with information that already exists in your head, but does not necessarily have to be true. For example, because it is the stereotype of a librarian to be rather closed and not interested in reality. It is exactly such processes that lead to prejudices. These prejudices are rather indirect and invisible to you, but very obvious to all those who are affected by them.
You can certainly find the above example from "Fast thinking, slow thinking" in many areas of life - for example in a job application situation.
Because whenever we lack information, system 2 fills the gap with the associations that are already there. And if, for example, as in the popular children's book Pippi Longstocking, you have repeatedly seen how indigenous people are described there - namely rather racistly as savages who are actually regarded more like animals, your brain makes this association and stores it. If, as in the example with the farmer and the librarian, there is a gap in the processing of an impulse in system 2, you could fill the impression with this association.
Other examples: Dark-haired men with full beards who speak straight Arabic are associated with fanatical Islamists because we see more and more of these images in the media. Or this false assumption: a woman who wears high heels and short shorts is easy. So if you find yourself in a mental environment that is unpredictable, Kahneman recommends: Think again. Gut feeling is good and right in many situations, but not in many.
I also recommend that you question and reflect on the pigeonholes that your brain offers you.
You can learn. These pigeonholes and unconscious biases are in all people, whether we like it or not. It has even been proven in many studies that we have more empathy for those who are most like ourselves (for this, my literature tip: Shakil Choudhoury: Deep Diversity, Unrast Verlag). Belonging to a group is the key driver of human behaviour and also saved our lives when we lived in caves. Today, we still have these primeval thought patterns within us, but they are not always helpful in a globalised world and internationally cooperating teams. We are not rational beings, but are guided by our emotions - consciously or unconsciously.
Therefore, we have to match what we feel with what we think and, if necessary, reprogramme.
Kahneman even humbly states at the end of the book: "Except for a few effects that I attribute largely to my age, my intuitive thinking is just as prone to overconfidence, extreme predictions and the planning fallacy today as it was before I started studying these topics.
And I also confess herewith: I have many drawers in my head and am working on them. It's probably a life task, but I think it's urgently necessary from a social point of view.
