🎭 COGNITIVE BIASES
PAGE 1 OF 5 — YOUR BRAIN LOVES A SHORTCUT
TWO WAYS OF THINKING
YOUR BRAIN IS LAZY ON PURPOSE
Thinking hard costs energy, and your brain would rather not spend it. So it runs two systems. The fast one answers without any effort at all. Ask what two plus two is, or look at an angry face, and the answer simply arrives. The slow one is the one you feel working. Ask what seventeen times twenty four is and you have to stop, concentrate and grind through it. The fast system handles almost everything you do, which is brilliant, because you would be exhausted by lunchtime otherwise. The trouble is that fast answers are guesses dressed up as certainty, and sometimes those guesses are wrong in the same predictable way for almost everybody. A predictable thinking mistake like that is called a bias.
⚡ TRY IT NOW
A bat and a ball cost 1 pound 10 together. The bat costs 1 pound more than the ball. How much is the ball? Most people blurt out 10p. The real answer is 5p. That blurt is your fast system talking.
SNAP!
THE FAST ONE
⚡ The fast system runs on autopilot and never seems to get tired.
🎯 It is brilliant at faces, danger and habits, but it loves to jump to conclusions.
🎯 It is brilliant at faces, danger and habits, but it loves to jump to conclusions.
THE SLOW ONE
🧠 The slow system is careful and accurate, but it takes real effort to switch on.
😴 Because it tires you out, your brain avoids using it whenever it can.
😴 Because it tires you out, your brain avoids using it whenever it can.