The problem with System One

In a New Scientist interview (19 November 2011), psychologist Daniel Kahneman describes two "systems" the mind has for coming to conclusions. System two is slow, deliberate thought; if we relied on it for everything we'd soon be run over by a bus, so system one, "fast, automatic, almost effortless", creates the "thoughts that occur to you", as opposed to the "thoughts that you have to generate".

Of the useful but unreliable "system one", Kahneman remarks:

"System one produces the best coherent story possible from the evidence at hand. I describe it as a machine for jumping to conclusions. If I ask you, is X a good leader, and I say, she is intelligent and strong, you have already formed the impression she's a good leader. I haven't told you other things - she's also corrupt and cruel, say. You haven't waited for information but formed an impression on the basis of the information you had. We need that to get around in the world - we can't live in a state of perpetual doubt - so we make up the best story possible and we live as if this story were true."

Kahneman points out that we often don't realise just how little information we actually have, leading to overconfidence. I thought of two examples from my recent reading: first, a newspaper headline: "'Political' SlutWalk misses the point, says rape survivor". By their nature, headlines are misleading, plugging straight into system one, which cheerfully paints in the rest of the story without recourse to the facts. It's the job of subeditors to make headlines as neutral as possible, but this one seems deliberately intended as an attack on Slutwalk (and, by extension, feminism). After all, who could be a more credible critic of an anti-rape initiative than a rape survivor? Actually reading the article - and you'll have to get past the equally misleading opening paras - uncovers what is merely a disagreement between Slutwalk organisers caused by a misunderstanding. Big whoop. But who wants to read about that? The pillow-fight suggested by the headline, with the help of system one's guesswork, sounds a lot more exciting.

Secondly, yesterday on the bus I was reading about "priming" - the way that clues from our surroundings can unconsciously affect our self-image - in the first chapter of Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine. The research she describes suggests the mechanism by which women absorb ideas about women's abilities. I think there must be a connection between this and "system one", and between system one and other subtle, even unconscious assumptions and prejudices. If so, whatever our conscious attitudes, our brains are being programmed with biased information about ourselves and others by media and advertising pretty close to 24/7.