Book Report Final Project: Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

 

General overview:

“Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman is a thought-provoking book that reviews two systems of the mind. System 1, which is known as our automatic processing. System 1 is always active and makes most of our decisions without bringing them to conscious awareness. This system is partnered with our more critical thinking system, System 2. System 2 activates when a situation requires more effort. It is our conscious deliberate thought. It helps us with more complicated processes, such as solving difficult equations or having an in-depth discussion with someone. System 2 is also responsible for exercising self-control and vetoing some of System 1’s decisions. However, System 1 is not inherently bad. While it is a main factor in our misunderstandings, many of the thoughts and actions generated by System 1 are on point. System 2 can also make mistakes as its abilities are limited to what knowledge we already have. Both Systems have unique talents and flaws that can be balanced to guide us toward more critical thought.

Kahneman explores various heuristics throughout the book and explains the cognitive processes behind them. Concepts such as priming, anchoring, the halo effect, associative coherence, confirmation bias, and more are explored with various examples to assist in understanding these psychological concepts. He also explains how to take control of your thinking to escape some of the intuitive patterns we naturally get trapped in. As well as how these patterns originate and what role our memories take in making decisions.

Favorite part:

My favorite part of this book was when Kahneman describes the concept of “the two selves”. The two selves are the “Experiencing Self” and the “Remembering Self”. The experiencing self is you in the present moment, taking in everything around you. While the remembering self shapes your decisions based on your memories. If your experiencing self had a pleasant moment but the end of that moment turned sour, your remembering self makes it so you recall the memory as bad overall. However when experiencing the moment there was no actual problem until the very last moment, so in truth, the experience was not all bad. This part of the book really helped me open my eyes and realize how flawed our memories can be. Although the remembering self has good intentions and tries to keep you safe, it does influence your decision-making by aligning you with your past choices. This concept is similar to the false memories lecture. What is remembered does not always match what was experienced. Your memories can be easily influenced and we remember things in a way that matches current expectations. Even subtle suggestions have the power to change what we remember to be true. It is incredibly interesting to see how our memory is flawed and how we tend to see the past as more positive or negative than how it occurred. Being aware of these flaws can help us to become more balanced as we can recognize that our choices are heavily shaped by our memories. With the awareness that our memories are flawed, we can think more critically about future decisions and make different choices based more on logic than intuition.

Relation to class material:

This book is very relevant to what we have learned in this class. Pseudoscience's ability to thrive directly results from System 1’s quick and messy thinking. It is because we don’t take the time to think critically that we have lapses in judgment that lead to fallacies and bias. In the first lecture, ways of thinking, fast thinking is described as automatic and effortless. It is ruled by assumptions, intuitive flaws, and cognitive heuristics. Kahneman explains that this fast thinking is done by System 1, and because System 1 is akin to an autopilot mode it is often that we come to instant simplistic conclusions and never stop to question them. Sometimes even System 2 is the problem, becoming too lazy to fact-check System 1’s quick conclusions. In contrast, slow thinking done by System 2 is more counterintuitive and takes conscious effort. Science depends on this slow and critical thinking so that we can continually build upon our knowledge to understand natural processes in the world. Pseudoscience relies on fast thinking and does not progress over time, using vague ideas and unverifiable experiments to explain natural phenomena. 

System 2 is what is needed to understand the elements of thought and to really think through the facts, the implications, and any underlying assumptions. I believe that this course was based on the ideas of this book, as the takeaway message is to not give into quick thinking (System 1) and to question things ourselves and utilize our conscious awareness of ideas (System 2).

Creative: 

I’ve created a PowerPoint presentation that goes over some of the smaller facts and ideas in the book that I found interesting. This book has a multitude of interesting overarching concepts, but there are also little details that are quite intriguing. I figured I would highlight a few of the tidbits that might not appear in a simple summary of the book.

thinking fast and slow fun facts

Extension:

Thinking Fast and Slow highlights the various flaws within human thinking. Many of these flaws are taken advantage of, especially within the world of marketing. Behavioral economics is often used to make a profit from slow thinking. Kahneman explores some principles of behavioral economics and explains how humans need protection from others who will deliberately exploit their lack of thinking.  Phenomena such as the endowment effect, the scarcity effect, and the sunk cost fallacy play a huge role in consumer behavior and sometimes we are not as rational as we believe we are. The messiness of System 1 and the laziness of System 2 can also lead to problems such as signing contracts we do not fully understand or believing in ideas that are based on nothing. Within economics and government, some protections need to be placed to ensure that people are making truly informed decisions. In a world where it is easy to be swayed by fast facts and pressure tactics, understanding the principles of Systems 1 and 2 would help equal the playing field so that we can make better choices without relying on mental shortcuts. By learning to balance the automatic intuition of System 1 with the critical thinking of System 2, we can utilize the best of both systems to further our growth and understanding of the world around us.