Dr. Tulasi Acharya

What we fail to understand is most of the decisions we make come from our impressions, not from observations, computations, and contemplation, and they affect our judgment, evaluation, and the kind of initiatives we take, whether that be in politics or policymaking or in any citizenry participation. We lack mental effort.

Without mental effort, the ideas we come up with, the perspectives we have, the way we see the world, and the arguments we make to persuade others mostly come from our impressions. If we do not bother with testing and validating the impressions we have, our way of seeing the world might turn out to be incorrect. We usually have the habit of taking things for granted without testing our impressions or questioning them.
In his book “Thinking Fast and Slow,” Daniel Kahneman writes about two systems that work in human mind: System 1: “it operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of volunteer control” (p.20). System 2: “It allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations. The operations of System 2 are often associated with the subjective experience of agency, choice, and concentration” (p.21). In this regard, we can also relate System 1 and System 2 to the two psychological forces of human psyche, i.e., impressions and reasoning. Impression is very quick to react while reasoning slows it down.

Going back to the idea of impressions, System 1 is a lot closer to immediate impressions based on how we respond to the ideas or objects or the world, thinking without effort. However, System 2 demands slow thinking and concentration. We can make a connection between these systems. We are accustomed to the culture of blaming each other and bickering, forming opinions and judgments for and against the opposition parties or political leaders.

Biased perceptions
We blame others so quickly without a second thought. For example, we quickly, without even thinking of or contemplating or computing it, call someone an “agent of RAW” if he/she talks in a favour of India or “Rajabadi,” the King’s person if it is in a favour of the King or so. We say so because of the kind of immediate impressions we have, but that’s not always right. We make the similar intuitive judgments about women, Dalits, and the marginalised and biasedly represent them in politics and policymaking. Based on our biased perceptions of them, we make judgments on them. Therefore, we have lost the process of slow thinking that demands research, observations, facts, computations, and findings.

Sometimes what we speak from our impressions is correct, but not always. It is because some impressions come from our habits, familiarity, and everyday experience. We can immediately say two plus two is four, but we need to dilate our pupils to start thinking and computing slowly when we are asked what the outcome is when 36 is multiplied by 49. We have lost the art of mathematical computation before passing judgment on someone if we are merely relying on the impressions we have.

In our social, political, and cultural sphere, we are so quick to blame, predict, decide, and conclude just merely based on the impressions, and perhaps prejudices, personal interests, and superstitious beliefs. We fail to understand the consequences of fast thinking based on impressions. In politics, it is much easier and far more enjoyable to identify and label the mistakes of others than to recognise our own because we form the statements from the impressions and do not cultivate the habits of listening to informed opinions of others. Without slow thinking, we fail to diagnose our own biased intuitive impressions and, therefore, cannot improve the ability to identify and understand errors of judgment and choice, in others and eventually in ourselves.

Sometimes, we tend to believe in what the majority says. Or we might have gotten the impressions from topics and issues published and discussed in the mainstream media, and we associate ideas. Based on them, we form our opinions that populate our mind. However, we might have failed to reach the root cause of the issues or see things outside the box. Thus, serious issues might have slipped away from our awareness. Our own thinking might be imprisoned by our cognitive biases. Sometimes we are swept away by emotions, overconfidence that are formed based on our impressions. We always look for easy answers without contemplating and computing it. Thus, thinking slow is very important. Thinking slow, according to Kahneman, is the process of mental work: “deliberate, effortful, and orderly” (p.20).

Ego
Statements, ideas, judgments, and decisions from impressions are illusory. Thus, we must learn to mistrust our impressions, learn to be suspicious of our own feelings. For all of this needs a slow thinking. Slow thinking demands dilation of the pupils of the eyes. Psychologist Eckhard Hess describes the pupil of the eyes as “a window to the soul.” Slow thinking is a removal of mental ego, and a try to understand others’ informed perspectives, taking everyone’s’ ideas into considerations. Whether that be in politics or policymaking or in any citizenry participation, we all need to utilise both System 1 and System 2 to check and balance one another. There should be the practice of mental effort. Instead of blaming or judging others, one should think of correcting oneself.

Thus, the politics of impressions must be corrected through System 2, and mental efforts must be utilised whether that be in politics or policymaking or as a conscious citizen of the nation.

(A PhD in Public Administration and Policy, the author teaches at South Georgia State College in the USA. @tulsirames)