System 1 and System 2 thinking
Howard Thompson
Presentation to ILM Level 5 course,
April 2017
17 x 24
Two systems of thinking
System 1 ‘Thinking fast’
System 2 ‘Thinking slow’
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Fast
Automatic
Frequent
Emotional
Subconscious
Continuously generates
suggestions for System 2 to
adopt
Example – reading the text on a
billboard
Slow
Effortful
Infrequent
Logical
Conscious
Mobilised when System 1
doesn’t offer a suitable answer
Example – counting the number
of A’s in a given paragraph
Stanovich and West, further developed by Kahneman and Tversky
An explanation for cognitive biases?
• Loss aversion – preference for averting a loss over achieving a gain;
• Framing choices – 90 per cent survival rate v 10 per cent mortality
rate;
• Anchoring – tendency for choices to be influenced by irrelevant
numbers;
• Substitution – (unconsciously) replacing difficult questions with
simpler ones;
• Sunk Cost – throwing good money after bad, in part to avoid
feelings of regret.
Possible implications for coaching
• Coaches and coachees may demonstrate unconscious
biases – derived from system 1?
• Does significant challenge inadvertently cause reversion to
system 1 thinking?
• Have options been developed (or evaluated) using both
system 1 and system 2?
• Interaction with Myers Briggs Types? Recognising the likely
decision-making preferences of (for example) T-types and
F-types.
References
• Stanovich, K E.; West, R F. (2000). "Individual
difference in reasoning: implications for the
rationality debate?". Behavioural and Brain
Sciences. 23: 645–726.
• Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow.
Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4299-6935-2.