System 1 and 2:
how people
really decide

You have two ways of thinking. One runs by itself, on feeling and habit. The other takes effort and only switches on when it has to. Almost everything we make is built for the second one, while the first has already made the decision.

• What the fast brain responds to, on one card. Speed, fluency, the anchor, the frame and the default. Five things that steer the decision before anyone has read your first sentence.
• A check on each one that you apply to your own work. Which number do people see first, and did I choose it? What happens when someone does nothing, and is that what I want?
• And when you actually want the slow brain instead. With a large purchase or an irreversible choice, friction works in your favour. Making everything smoother is not always better.
• Research behind it, not loose claims. Kahneman described System 1 and 2 in Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) and borrowed the terms from Keith Stanovich and Richard West. The card also draws on Tversky and Kahneman, Johnson and Goldstein, and Alter and Oppenheimer.