The 3 Steps Required to Correct Your Intuition
Thinking takes time and effort, meaning we can’t apply it to everything we do, otherwise it would take us too long to get anywhere.
For this reason we rely a great deal on intuition. It helps us navigate familiar roads, put our socks and shoes on, and get breakfast together. For the most part, it does its job and lets us be more selective in what we think about.
But intuition doesn’t always do a good job, and what we need in these cases is to inject some cognition. The question is whether we’re very good at recognising when this is the case, and how effective we are at following through.
Gut Override
In 2005, psychologist Shane Frederick developed the cognitive reflection test. It aims to measure how effective we are at identifying a flaw in our intuition and using our head to resolve the problem.
The test consists of 3 questions:
- A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
- If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?
- 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…
