![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Caps-for-Sale.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAfter reading Daniel Kahneman\u2019s Thinking, Fast and Slow<\/em> I feel like the peddler in Esphyr Slobodkina\u2019s children\u2019s book Caps for Sale<\/em>.\u00a0 In this book, a peddler who sells caps is having a day of no sales, he is tired and goes out into the countryside and falls asleep underneath a tree wearing all his caps on his head.\u00a0 Upon awakening, he discovers that all but one of his caps has been stolen by monkeys in the tree.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 I have awakened to realize that my System 1 has stolen all my System 2\u2019s caps.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kahneman describes System 1 and 2 as follows. \u201cSystem 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control. System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations.\u00a0 The operations of System 2 are often associated with subjective experience of agency, choice and concentration.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 Kahneman goes on to say that System 2 likes to believe it is the hero, the one in charge of making all important decisions, but we come to discover that System 2 is actually just a supporting actor[3]<\/a>.\u00a0 So why do I feel that my caps have been stolen by System 1?\u00a0 In the Social Justice and Advocacy class that I teach, students are taught the five steps to understanding an issue:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n After reading Kahneman\u2019s book, you can probably see how System 1 can influence each of these steps through influences such as priming, heuristic thinking, anchoring and framing[5]<\/a>.\u00a0 It is Step 5 that concerns me the most.\u00a0 In step 5, I am to review solutions and try to determine the potential consequences for each, this requires System 2 thinking.\u00a0 One way to accomplish this, described by Richard Hoefer, is through a concept developed by Edward De Bono called Six Thinking Hats.\u00a0 This process is done typically in a group setting but can be done individually as well.\u00a0 Each hat is a different color, and it encourages everyone to focus on the same thinking style at the same time.\u00a0 The leader wears a blue hat, titled the conductor\u2019s hat.\u00a0 \u00a0The leader is the one who ensures everyone stays on task, helps set the rules and the agenda.\u00a0 This role is assumed by System 2.\u00a0 The five remaining hats are various thinking styles that the conductor, System 2, leads everyone through.\u00a0 White hat, rational thinking, the one in which System 2 should excel, looks at data, history regarding the issue, and previous attempts to solve the issue.\u00a0 Red hat, intuitive style thinking, is System 1\u2019s cup of tea.\u00a0 This involves evaluating emotions and gut reactions.\u00a0 Black Hat is what De Bono calls negative style, involves looking at what could go wrong, and what are the inherit weaknesses of the proposed solutions.\u00a0 Yellow hat, optimistic style thinking, focuses on finding the positives of each proposal.\u00a0 Finally, the green hat, creative style, calls for participants to reframe the issue and solutions to help participants see things differently.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n After reading Kahneman\u2019s book I wonder if System 2 is actually the one wearing the blue hat.\u00a0 Has System 1 stolen all the hats, while System 2 was sleeping? After waking up to find out that all of System 2\u2019s hats or caps have been stolen by System 1, how much effort is System 2 willing to put into getting at the very least the blue hat back?\u00a0 Kahneman claims that System 2 is lazy.[7]<\/a>\u00a0 Thinking about Freidman\u2019s book The Failure of Nerve<\/em>, and the 5 characteristics of a chronically anxious system, System 1 is all about reactivity, what comes easy and naturally.\u00a0 We don\u2019t want to wake up System 2, it\u2019s easier to react, go with the herd, shift blame and look for the quick fix[8]<\/a>.\u00a0 How do I teach students to go through all five steps of understanding an issue with System 2 fully engaged?\u00a0 I can educate them about System 1 and System 2 thinking, providing them with examples of the common System 1 thinking pitfalls (priming, anchoring, illusion of understanding, illusion of validity, etc.) and deficits of System 2 thinking (overly reliant on System 1, can miss the obvious when overly focused, etc.).[9]<\/a>\u00a0 Even with education, Kahneman concludes his book stating that Humans are not able to consistently avoid the pitfalls of System 1 thinking.[10]<\/a> \u00a0To survive, we need System 1\u2019s reactive thinking and at times we must accept the pitfalls that come with it.<\/p>\n In case you don\u2019t remember the ending to Slobodkina\u2019s book, the peddler gets overly frustrated with the monkeys and in a fit of rage, he throws his remaining cap to the ground; a reaction surely suggested by System 1.\u00a0 The monkeys who had been mimicking the peddler (shaking fingers, stamping feet) continue to engage in their System 1 reactive thinking and throw their stolen caps to the ground.\u00a0 The peddler calmly retrieves his caps and goes on his way, oblivious to the System 1 and System 2 thinking processes that filled his day.[11]<\/a><\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Esphyr Slobodkina, Caps for Sale<\/em>: A Tale of a Peddler Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business (New York, HarperCollins, 1987).<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow<\/em>, (Canada: Anchor Canada, 2013), 20-21.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Kahneman, 31.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Richard Hoefer, Advocacy Practice for Social Justice<\/em> 4th<\/sup> ed., (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 57-73.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Kahneman.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Hoefer, 70-71.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Kahneman, 31.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Edwin Friedman A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix.<\/em> (New York: Church Publishing, 2007).<\/p>\n [9]<\/a> Kahneman, 23-24,52-58, 119-128, 199-22, 415<\/p>\n\n