Where is the Holy Spirit’s Role in System 1?
A is for Anchor
(Not so veiled attempt at anchoring my grade)[1]
This week’s reading of Daniel Kahneman comes at a great time as I reflect on a meeting last week. In my meeting I had a quick System 1 reaction, followed by slowly processing it with System 2 thinking.[2] Though Kahneman’s book covers multiple different psychological processes and decision-making skills, such as behavioral economics and the two-self, I will reflect primarily on his definition of System 1 and System 2.
As I shared a few weeks ago, I was a firefighter for ten years. My intuition is very high and think that I would agree more with Gary Klein’s position. In his book on developing insight, Klein writes, “Firefighters build up patterns that they apply in making rapid decisions in emergencies. Intuition is the use of patterns they’ve already learned, whereas insight is the discovery of new patterns.”[3] I have experience with the entire range of people in our society. Our 911 system is used by both the ultra-rich as well as the ultra-poor. When I moved to Kenya, I feel that my intuition was sharpened even more. I knew when trouble was near and when we needed to adjust plans. Though Kahneman suggests people place too much confidence in their intuitions I have come to rely heavily on mine.[4]
Last week I had a meeting with a young man in his early 30’s. (I’ll call him John). He had gone through the process with our organization to be a volunteer to work with refugees. So, I met him to help discern the best place to get him connected. When I met John, there was just something off about him. Like meeting him missed the spark that I normally expect when meeting with other volunteers. Something was off but I couldn’t figure out what. I got my coffee and sat down. Due to the coffee shop changing hours, we only had 30 minutes to meet (I silently thanked God for this.)
With less time than normal, I began my spiel. Yet, as I was talking about the work we do, everything felt off. His eyes were staring at me, his demeanor impatient. My heart rate increased enough for me to notice it, my breathing increased, and I felt uneasy. Kahneman writes, “As cognitive scientists have emphasized in recent years, cognition is embodied; you think with your body, not only with your brain.”[5] It was at this point that I felt the Holy Spirit speak to me. Essentially, he said, “Stop talking about your work. Ask John why he doesn’t have a church home. This man needs to be discipled. He is not going to volunteer right now.” I switched gears and stopped talking about the work going on with refugees but instead began to ask him questions and really listen to his responses.
John tiptoed around the idea of a church home and said things that raised a lot of red flags for me. He asked if he “had to” be a part of a church to volunteer. Reflecting on what Eve Poole writes in her book about hostile questions, I stepped into the question.[6] I explained our policy but then I turned the question back on him and tried to disciple him back into the church. Every question he was asking about refugees, I was turning back towards his attitude towards the church.
The short meeting finally ended without me committing to connecting him but rather telling him I would pray about what to do. I did some System 2 processing with my wife on a long walk and relayed all the red flags that came up. Was I exaggerating this? Or as Kahneman would put it, “System 1 is designed to jump to conclusions from little evidence – and it is not designed to know the size of its jumps.”[7] How could I come to a conclusion about John in so little time? I realized that this was not the norm for me. It is not normal to feel the need to stop explaining the work we do and instead begin to disciple. The Spirit inside me and my body were telling me this was a “Rare event” which “produces an impulse for protective action.”[8]
After some prayer, I decided that the best move forward with this potential volunteer was to encourage him back into a church body and to be discipled by an older man for a period of six months. Then, after six months to reapply and we can reassess what to do at that point. I sat on the email for a few days, not wanting to send it but finally told John that I would not allow him to volunteer at this point because I am concerned for the anger and/or hurt he seemed to have regarding the church body. I encouraged him to find a church, any church, and I was happy to recommend a few if he wanted. Shortly after the email he called me and was very frustrated and angry at me. He accused me of making assumptions about his faith after only a thirty-minute conversation and repeatedly asked me to change my mind. Again, I stepped into the question and held my ground.
Was he right? Did I allow a System 1 judgement to simply make the easy decision and overrule the deeper System 2 thinking? I debriefed the whole event with my boss. She asked for John’s name and relooked at his background check and his information which I never had access to. She gasped as she said John’s background had slipped through the cracks and he never should have passed. She couldn’t believe it was missed and was very thankful for the discernment of the Holy Spirit speaking to me and my intuition that something was simply not right.
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[1] Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, 1st ed (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011), 119.
[2] Kahneman, 20–21.
[3] Gary Klein, Seeing What Others Don’t: The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights (New York: Public Affairs, 2013), 27.
[4] Kahneman, 45.
[5] Kahneman, 51.
[6] Eve Poole, Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership (London Oxford New York, NY: Bloomsbury Business, 2017), 141.
[7] Kahneman, 209.
[8] Kahneman, 323.
About the Author
Adam Cheney
I grew up in California, spent five years living along the beautiful coast of Kenya and now find myself working with refugees in the snow crusted tundra of Minnesota. My wife and I have seven children, four of whom have been adopted. I spend my time drinking lots of coffee, working in my garden, and baking sourdough bread.15 responses to “Where is the Holy Spirit’s Role in System 1?”
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Hey Adam,
Thanks for sharing this story as a way to integrate the concepts of Slow and Fast Thinking. I especially appreciate the aspects of checking in/processing with your spouse, your boss and ultimately the Holy Spirit. I also admire the way you stepped into the hard questions that ‘John’ was asking. My anxious reaction would’ve been to dismiss and protect, but you stayed engaged to make sure there wasn’t a bias you had developed unnecessarily. Well done!
Ryan,
Thanks. I had a few different responses in my head that I was running through. One response was simply to ghost him and stop responding to his emails and calls. I figured that this would have worked but maybe wasn’t the most mature way of handling the situation.
Adam,
I read your headline and said, “ooooh! Good one.”
I also disagree with Kahneman’s suggestion that humanity needs to place less confidence in their intuitions. Though I was never a fire fighter, I have been in situations (travel, missions, decision making) where I have relied on my gut instincts. In fact, most of the time when family members are getting ready to travel, you will always hear me say, “listen to your gut!” Which is synonymous with listen to the Holy Spirit. Just as the DNA doesn’t lie, I don’t think our gut instincts lie.
And, it sounds like, you were spot on for listening to the Holy Spirit as you spoke with the young man.
So, is there a way to navigate those situations that include System 2 thinking while also listening to the Spirit within us? Thoughts?
Nancy,
I think the best thing to do would be to recognize that the System 1 thinking is in control and we need to check our perceptions. Those perceptions may very well be right and often I would argue they are. However, we do need to use the System 2 thinking and check what we might be missing.
Hi Ryan. A great moment of walking with the Holy Spirit. It even equates to a gift of Discernment that we read about in 1 Corinthians 12.
In reflecting on your encounter with the potential volunteer, what is your ultimate takeaway in navigating the balance between intuitive reactions, Holy Spirit prompting and deeper cognitive processing, particularly when faced with time constraints and ambiguous signals?
Honestly, I think I handled the situation well. I made a quick assessment of him, but then I checked with my wife and boss about what they thought. Surely, I could have led them to agree with me but it did allow me to check my own perceptions. I also spent a bit of time in prayer over it and felt that the Holy Spirit continued to clarify things for me. So my System 2 processing kept affirming what the System 1 assumptions had made.
Adam, what an amazing story. I don’t know if you’ve ever studied anything about Ignatian discernment, but you are accurately describing “desolation.” It’s the feeling the Holy Spirit gives when something isn’t right. We can try to rationalize it all away, but our “intuition” – what is really the brain responding to cues at a deep, unconscious level – is right far more often than we give it credit for. And then that begs the question: is “intuition” – at least sometimes – another name for “the Holy Spirit”?
What do you think?
Debbie,
I do think that our intuition and the Holy Spirit are often closely in-line. However, how would that affect those who are not in relationship with Christ and do not have the Holy Spirit indwelling them? They still have intuition. So, I would say that everyone likely has some intuition, maybe it can be developed by some more than others. Then, the Holy Spirit indwelling in his people adds another dimension of sorts.
Adam, I, too, have found myself relying more and more on my intuition (and Holy Spirit-led discernment). Maybe it’s because we share EMS and Africa experiences? Well done on following that intuition. What do you want to remember and apply from this experience for future situations?
Kari,
Living overseas and working in EMS certainly gives us both experiences that others might not have. So many other examples come to mind about listening to the insight the Holy Spirit has given. I think one thing I want to remember about this experience was the embodiment aspect to it. I don’t always listen to my body, but this time I was recognizing something was off.
Hi Adam,
Thank you for your post. How might this experience influence your teaching in the Social Justice and Advocacy class, especially in discussions about intuition and decision-making?
Shela,
I think you are thinking of Jeff:)
Adam!!
That was a great post and comparison to using your gut instincts as a firefighter.
That moment with John, when you felt like you were being guided by the Holy Spirit, is such a great example of how intuition and deeper thinking work together. Despite Kahneman’s warning about relying on intuition, you rocked it!
Telling John to seek spiritual guidance, even though you only talked for a bit, shows how you use your gut and think things through. Learning about John’s past proves to me that trusting your gut is important when making choices.
Even though experts like Kahneman warn against it, how do you still trust your gut?
Chris,
I do think that over time, with practice in many different ways, I have seen my instinct proved right, over and over. The caution for me is to slow down a bit and recognize that it is a system 1 response, which does not make it bad, and then to think things through at a deeper level.
Hi Adam, You did a hard thing and took a risk to say “not yet.” I’m thinking of our friend Friedman again and the importance of leading from what is right, not what people want you to do. I just wanted to affirm that in you…and I’m so glad you were able to get confirmation in the end that your way was correct. It sounds like your thinking and your spirit are well partnered with the Holy Spirit.