Thinking Fast Can Mean Doing Good

by Daniel Akst

Wall Street Journal
September 25, 2012

Is it better to act intuitively or after lots of consideration? The question has had a lot of attention in recent years.

Books like Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink remind us of how effectively we can perceive and decide in an instant. But Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow focuses on the pitfalls of our intuitive system as well as its strengths.

Perhaps the real challenge is figuring out when to use which; Freud suggested that we deliberate by all means over small matters (spread collar or button down? Fish or chicken?) but that on really big decisions, like whom to marry, it was best to go with your gut.

Now comes a study based on a series of Harvard experiments, showing that people are more likely to act for the collective good—and less likely to pursue self-interest—when they act intuitively.

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