Chapter 3: The Lazy Controller
This chapter tells us other characteristics of S1 and S2, especially of the last one. It talks about our limited budget of energy, mental energy, and how different types of thinking affect our consumption of this. It also gives an explanation of our behaviors and thoughts by focusing on the task of self-control.
Some other characteristics of System 1
· Individuals who uncritically follow their intuitions about puzzles are also prone to accept other suggestions from S1. In particular, they are impulsive, impatient, and keen to receive immediate gratification (Keynesians).
· Impulsive and Intuitive.
Some other characteristics of System 2
· Has natural speed. You expend some mental energy in random thoughts and in monitoring what goes on around you even when your mind does nothing in particular.
· Controlling thoughts and behaviors.
· The exertion of self-control is depleting and unpleasant.
· Monitor and control thoughts and actions “suggested” by S1, allowing some to be expressed directly in behavior and suppressing or modifying others.
· The extents of deliberate checking and search, which varies among individuals (e.g. Michigan/Detroit murder rate guess).
· Capable of reasoning and cautious (Austrians)
Illustrating the chapter
· He mentions that as he was walking, he can draw more attention to his thoughts if he goes in a slower pace, but as he speeds up, his attention is drawn with increasing frequency to the experience of walking and to the deliberate maintenance of the faster pace.
· Self-control and deliberate thought apparently draw on the same limited budget of effort. It is tiring since it takes part of the mental energy.
· Maintenance of a coherent train of thought and the occasional engagement in effortful thinking also require self-control.
· He thinks that switching of tasks and speeded-up mental work are not intrinsically pleasurable. (Law of least effort)
· Cognitive work is not always aversive. Mihaly Csikszentimihaly calls this flow. Flow is a state of effortless concentration so deep that they lose their sense of time, of themselves, of their problems. It separates two forms of effort: (1) concentration on the task, and (2) the deliberate control of attention.
· Self-control and cognitive effort are forms of mental work.
· S1 has more influence when S2 is busy. Being cognitively busy means that you would be more vulnerable of not thinking well your actions, mostly because of some disruptions (e.g. a few drinks, a sleepless night).
· Ego Depletion: if you have had to force yourself to do something, you are less willing or less able to exert self-control when the next challenge comes around. The nervous system consumes more glucose than most other parts of the body (there is mental energy after all!); (e.g. hungry judges vs. denying requests for parole.).
· People may have a lazy S2, I mean really lazy, so they may be overconfident, prone to place too much faith in their intuitions. Overriding it requires hard work. This suggests that when people believe a conclusion is true, they are also very likely to believe arguments that appear to support it, even when these arguments are unsound. (Did you hear, you socialists?) So, yes socialists are more common to think with S1, having a conclusion and then arguments follow. (e.g. bat-and-ball problem, roses syllogism).
· Intelligence, control, rationality. (Walter Mischel Oreo experiment; it shows self-control among children)
· Stanovich argues that high intelligence does not make people immune to biases. Another ability is involved, which he labels rationality. Rationality and intelligence is not the same. Superficial or “lazy” thinking is a flaw in the reflective mind, a failure of rationality.
Some other characteristics of System 1
· Individuals who uncritically follow their intuitions about puzzles are also prone to accept other suggestions from S1. In particular, they are impulsive, impatient, and keen to receive immediate gratification (Keynesians).
· Impulsive and Intuitive.
Some other characteristics of System 2
· Has natural speed. You expend some mental energy in random thoughts and in monitoring what goes on around you even when your mind does nothing in particular.
· Controlling thoughts and behaviors.
· The exertion of self-control is depleting and unpleasant.
· Monitor and control thoughts and actions “suggested” by S1, allowing some to be expressed directly in behavior and suppressing or modifying others.
· The extents of deliberate checking and search, which varies among individuals (e.g. Michigan/Detroit murder rate guess).
· Capable of reasoning and cautious (Austrians)
Illustrating the chapter
· He mentions that as he was walking, he can draw more attention to his thoughts if he goes in a slower pace, but as he speeds up, his attention is drawn with increasing frequency to the experience of walking and to the deliberate maintenance of the faster pace.
· Self-control and deliberate thought apparently draw on the same limited budget of effort. It is tiring since it takes part of the mental energy.
· Maintenance of a coherent train of thought and the occasional engagement in effortful thinking also require self-control.
· He thinks that switching of tasks and speeded-up mental work are not intrinsically pleasurable. (Law of least effort)
· Cognitive work is not always aversive. Mihaly Csikszentimihaly calls this flow. Flow is a state of effortless concentration so deep that they lose their sense of time, of themselves, of their problems. It separates two forms of effort: (1) concentration on the task, and (2) the deliberate control of attention.
· Self-control and cognitive effort are forms of mental work.
· S1 has more influence when S2 is busy. Being cognitively busy means that you would be more vulnerable of not thinking well your actions, mostly because of some disruptions (e.g. a few drinks, a sleepless night).
· Ego Depletion: if you have had to force yourself to do something, you are less willing or less able to exert self-control when the next challenge comes around. The nervous system consumes more glucose than most other parts of the body (there is mental energy after all!); (e.g. hungry judges vs. denying requests for parole.).
· People may have a lazy S2, I mean really lazy, so they may be overconfident, prone to place too much faith in their intuitions. Overriding it requires hard work. This suggests that when people believe a conclusion is true, they are also very likely to believe arguments that appear to support it, even when these arguments are unsound. (Did you hear, you socialists?) So, yes socialists are more common to think with S1, having a conclusion and then arguments follow. (e.g. bat-and-ball problem, roses syllogism).
· Intelligence, control, rationality. (Walter Mischel Oreo experiment; it shows self-control among children)
· Stanovich argues that high intelligence does not make people immune to biases. Another ability is involved, which he labels rationality. Rationality and intelligence is not the same. Superficial or “lazy” thinking is a flaw in the reflective mind, a failure of rationality.