Louisville Process Theology Network

Yin and Yang

Daniel Kahneman is a renowned psychologist who won a Nobel
Prize in Economics for his studies of human irrationality. This award might sound
sort of strange but it makes sense when you consider that economic behavior is
human behavior. His research into the dualism of human nature is widely regarded
pioneering work – body and soul, reason and passion, yin and yang.

Kahneman’s most recent book, “Thinking Fast and Slow” is
described by book reviewers as a thought provoking examination of how illogical,
impressionable, and incompetent we are in making judgments. Our divided nature appears to be partly to blame for that. Supposedly, our instinctive and impatient side is supervised by our patient forward-looking reason; however, Kahneman finds plenty of exceptions.

In the book, he names the two sides of our nature, very
simply, “System 1” and “System 2.” The first gets us through the day most of the
time. Our snap judgments frequently turn out well enough. System 1 relies a
little too much on repetition, though. Repetition works until it doesn’t work.
It seems we seldom anticipate the inevitable breakdowns of overused theories and
techniques.

System 2 is our rational side; but, it easily tires.
Sometimes its lazy. We need System 2 to certify the impressions of Systems 1
more often that it can. When it can’t, we are highly likely to make bad
judgments.

Other dualisms Kahneman sees are rigid conformity v.
spontaneity and experiencing self v. remembering self. The latter explains why
we usually fail to count our blessings.

Overconfidence and irrational optimism run rampant because of
our tendency to invent rationalizations to justify the ends when things go well
for us. We ignore dumb luck.

Real life, Kahneman says, requires us to make judgments with
too little time and information. This environment demands that we practice and
hone System 2.