Two Systems

Priming

Apple, orange, grape.

Now fill in the missing blanc with the first word that comes to your mind:

_EAR

It's pretty safe bet to say your word was pear. So (hopefully) I fooled you! Situation would have been different if I would have selected snakes, tarantulas and other poisonous things and pasted this picture instead:

What happened to you is called priming. Human mind is really complex, but within the last decades we have learned to understand it better. Or at least we have better theories.

Brains have an awesome pattern recognition machinery. The artificial neural networks in Computer Science are trying to emulate how our brains work. They can be used to 'teach' the network to handle varying input. Our brains operate the same way. We have our own personal history. All our experiences, good and bad, actually affects how our brains work.

As a rude generalization I could say that brains are organized around ideas. Each idea contains a huge load of information about the topic and those idea boxes get more content while you gain more experience in life. Different ideas are connected. For example fruit - pear - green could be connected. Or if you have seen only yellow pears then your brain probably has different content. :)

In these vast networks there isn't only path across all ideas. And if you see some things more often together, they become more close for you. If you always get food after hearing a bell, your mind will probably link those two things.

Interestingly, your mind and body are maybe even more connected than you'd think. If you force your mouth into a smile or frown, it will statistically alter your mood. Similarly nodding or shaking your head will affect how you relate to a information you hear. Or if you see pictures of money, it will make you more independent, yet selfish. Probably not a good idea spread pictures of dollar bills around team room...

Two Systems

Your mind has actually two separate parts. There's the lazy, rational controller who thinks he's in charge and then the fast autopilot.

2 + 2 = ?

You didn't really calculate that. The answer just appeared in your mind. How about this:

16 x 27 = ?

You know you could answer that but it feels laborious and you don't want to do it. It would require some mental effort. Daniel Kahneman has labeled these two systems as System 1 (controller) and System 2 (autopilot).

System 2 is actually feeding us stories all the time about what's happening around us and System 1 is most of the time believing it. The difficult part is to understand when the story isn't true.

Cognitive easiness resembles truth. Saying that 'Repeating lie long enough makes it true' isn't far from being correct. And marketing people have known this for a long time. But things can't be to far out, they need to close enough to being true.

How many pairs of each animal did Moses take into the ark?

Well how about that? One pair? Or did you remember that Moses didn't even build ark, it was Noah. But don't feel bad even if you fell into this trap. Most people do. Moses is also an old guy in biblical context. Your brain was destined to fool you. But if I had replaced him with Skeletor your alarm bell would have probably worked better.

So sometimes we jump into conclusions without even being aware of it. Another noteworthy thing is that under strain the System 1 becomes almost blind. Check the experiment below. Stay sharp and concentrate on the white players:

While you concentrate of something mentally straining your pupils dilate. Also, you might need to stand still. (Have you ever been on the phone while walking and then you need to concentrate on getting the message through? At least I sometimes need to stop walking and think.)

All of this and much, much more you can read from Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow. If you are interested in how we (people) operate, I'd consider it a must read.

Side notes

As human brain extends and connects the ideas together, I'd like to also reflect how this information relates to what I've previously learned. Matthew D. Lieberman calls the two systems X-System and C-System. He actually has multiple references to Kahneman's work, so I guess it's good to read this one also.

David Rock (not personally) introduced me to the SCARF model. That already explains why we aren't so creative while being mentally strained. We can either fight or flight, but not innovate much.

Also this explains why I don't remember anything about conversations that I have while watching tv. And even more when I watch a movie that has subtitles. That's my brain saying "please return to the topic after the movie."