1. Intuition
Module 7

2. Quick Math test Questions
Please answer the following questions. You have a total of 90 seconds, or 30 seconds per question:
A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? = _____ cents
If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how many minutes will it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets? = ____ min.
In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake? ____ days
5 cents, 5, and 47
The bat costs $1.05 and the ball costs $0.05:  = 1.10
Each machine takes 5 minutes to make its widget. Each of the 100 machines will have finished making its widget in 5 minutes
The patch doubles in size every day and so on the 47th day the patch will be half the size it is on the 48th day

3. Answers
The bat costs $1.05 and the ball costs $0.05:  = 1.10
Each machine takes 5 minutes to make its widget. Each of the 100 machines will have finished making its widget in 5 minutes
The patch doubles in size every day and so on the 47th day the patch will be half the size it is on the 48th day

4. Intuition vs. Controlled Thinking
“Fast thinking” 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
“Slow Thinking” 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

5. Brain Regions Fast Limbic system Sympathetic nervous system Slow (CEO)
Amygdala
Sympathetic nervous system
Slow (CEO)
Frontal Lobe
Gut Reactions

6. Decision making
FAST 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
SLOW

7. Fast or slow?
Depends on: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

8. Small Group Discussion Question
Can you think of a situation in which you would want the fast part of your brain to take charge?
Can you think of a situation in which you would want the slow part of your brain to take charge?

9. Examples of Practical uses for intuition

10. Laying the Groundwork for Intuition
Schemas form the basis for pattern recognition and learned responses.
Facial recognition
Priming for specific schemas leads to different unconscious reactions.
Do you see a young or old woman?

11. Priming in Real Life (Bateson 2006)
In this study at a British University, a banner poster was hung over a price sign for coffee and tea in a office. The office staff had, for years, paid for their drinks by putting money in an “honesty box” next to the price sign.
The study involved hanging a different banner each week above the price sign. See the difference in payment?

12. Another Example: Weapon’s Effect
The mere sight of a weapon primes people to be more aggressive.

13. Limits of Priming
No subliminal “reprogramming”

14. Inaccuracy in Intuition
Biased input or memories = biased intuition
Inaccurate, impulsive decisions
Overconfidence
Incompetence feeds overconfidence
Poor predictors of our own behavior
Memory fabrication:
If our right brain knows something that the left does not, the left will just make up a plausible story. This calls into question our ability to trust our intuition.
Our intuition at any given moment is also tied to our emotions and memories, which are always influencing one another. So, if our intuition tells us to believe what a prosecutor tells us during a trial, we may be basing it not on the current events of the trial but rather, our former emotional memories of someone who looked like the prosecutor or prior interactions with the prosecutor, etc.
We may falsely believe the intuition is based a rational evaluation of the evidence but not necessarily.
Without awareness of our biases we may be overconfidence in ourselves.

15. Overconfidence Preventing Sustaining Prompt feedback
Unpacking tasks/facts
Defensive Pessimism
Sustaining
“Almost right” memory bias
Confirmation bias

16. What’s Going ON?

17. We like Cognitive Ease

18. Group Work Skim the headlines Which one would you like to read first?
Which one would you like to read the least?
Come up with one example of how cognitive ease or biases of intuition could affect our functions as citizens or our government officials