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Do you think you have control over the decisions you make? Think again. Did you know that surveys show that very often two doctors give different diagnoses to the same patient? Or that two judges in the same court give different sentences to the same defendant? Even more shockingly, it turns out that their decisions are also influenced by factors such as whether it’s morning or afternoon, as well as what day of the week it is.
The truth is that our brain is a much more complex structure than we can imagine. And our thinking is the result of many unconscious processes that move us in certain directions and, in short, make every decision for us.
Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman describes thinking as a process that takes place simultaneously in two main mental “compartments”, which he calls System 1 and System 2.
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In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman makes a curious analogy for this, demonstrating how easily our System 1, and therefore subsequently our System 2, can be fooled. Giving the example of gambling in general and the lottery in particular, he clearly demonstrates how the primary and quick conclusions that System 1 makes can fool System 2. Usually, the odds of winning the lottery are so low that with a focused mathematical calculation, you will quickly find that it is completely unnecessary to try. However, System 1 doesn’t do deep calculations. System 1 takes into account the presence of a chance to get rich quick and easy and sends this “important” information onward, ignoring the “minor” fact that the lottery ticket itself costs money.
Through more examples of cognitive illusions in life, we have tried to illustrate the importance of being aware of the thought processes going on in our mind and how to control them. We would love for you to take 5 minutes and enjoy the results of our work in the depths of human thinking, and we are sure that there is something to learn.
