Stopping to think about how and why we react to information in the way that we do can help develop our ability to form a more reasoned response and master our emotional intelligence.
A key aspect of emotional intelligence is effective decision making – the ability to manage our emotions to make rational decisions that are not driven by impulse. However, due to the physiological construction of our brain this is a difficult act.
Our brains naturally lead us to take short cuts in our thinking, basing our judgement on intuition, assumptions and expertise.
System 1 and 2 Thinking
According to research conducted by renowned psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, our brain consists of two thinking systems which he refers to as System 1 and 2.
System 1 corresponds to our emotions and intuitions – most of its activity takes place in the amygdala and other areas of our brains that developed early on in our evolution and have remained largely unchanged. This has left us with a response system that is not a great fit for modern life. Nevertheless, the response is the same – it elicits the freeze, flight or fight stress response. The amygdala hijack refers to the situation we find ourselves in when our brain reacts to psychological stress as if it’s physical danger. This effectively cuts out the part of our brain that allows our reasoned and rational thinking.
The defining feature of System 2 is that its operations are effortful and one of its main characteristics is that it does not want to invest more effort than is necessary. Kahneman refers to it in his book as ‘The Lazy Controller’. Invoking System 2 thinking requires effort in order to override the impulses and intuition that System 1 serves up. If System 1 is involved, the conclusion comes first and the arguments follow, which can lead to decisions being made under pressure with little rational thought applied. In short, we don’t apply emotionally intelligent thinking.
Fast thinking requires little or no effort and can be very effective at removing us from threat but can be very prone to systemic error. When we are in the throes of this System 1 thinking we run on autopilot, making snap judgements based on cognitive biases, remembered information and short cut heuristics. There can be conflict between the two systems and one of the huge tasks of System 2 is to overcome the impulses of System 1.
SYSTEM 1 THINKING
DRIVEN BY EMOTIONS AND INTUITIONS
- Unconscious
- Associative
- Automatic pilot
- Decisive
95% OF MENTAL FUNCTION
SYSTEM 2 THINKING
RESPONSIBLE FOR DELIBERATE, EFFORTFUL THINKING
- Takes effort
- Logical
- Lazy
- Indecisive
5% OF MENTAL FUNCTION
Emotional intelligence and thinking biases
Working on developing our emotional intelligence allows us to avoid the traps of System 1 thinking and tap into the more measured System 2 thinking, to enable us to direct our emotional response productively. People high in emotional intelligence recognise the primal, automatic reactions of System 1 and the more considered, thoughtful responses of System 2. In seeing the difference and the potential flaws of System 1, they challenge and enact their attention, self-control and rationality.
With practice, skill can be developed to think disruptively, to intercept some of the unproductive emotional and physiological reactions that System 1 offers us. This allows us to bring in additional perspective which can help to challenge some of the underlying beliefs, assumptions we hold that lead to counterproductive emotional reactions.
Learned Optimism
The psychologist Martin Seligman developed the 3P Model of Resilience, a really simple framework for helping you to consider the way you are explaining things to yourself and how this allows your emotions to be controlled while reaching conclusions.
These three Ps – personalisation, pervasiveness, and permanence – refer to three emotional reactions that we tend to have to adversity. They are more likely to be based on System 1 thinking and impacted by cognitive biases resulting in a pessimistic outlook.
But if we have ‘learned optimism’ we can train ourselves to interpret events as external, specific, transient. This process will activate System 2 thinking and enable us to challenge some of our cognitive biases, bringing in our emotional intelligence to respond.
Ultimately, emotional intelligence is based upon our ability to self-regulate our emotional reactions, resulting in more effective decision making and an ability to cope better with challenge. Learning to understand the limitations of our fast thinking brains is just one of the ways we can to develop this.
