Daniel Kahneman's two systems of thinking

In the book "Thinking, fast and slow", writen by the nobel price winner in econonics and professor in psychology Daniel Kahneman, two different methods of thinking is presented, called system 1 and 2.

System 1 rely on knowledge and rutine, and is engaged when a subject is dealing with a task that requires little to no effort, e.g. simple mathematical calculations or rutine work . System 2 is engaged when dealing with tasks in which attention is required and necessary for completing the task, e.g. searching for at specific person in a crowd or parallel parking a car .

Both of the systems run simultaneously whenever we are awake, normally system 2 is in a low effort mode, where system 1 "continuously reports impressions, intuitions, intensions and feelings". These impressions and intuitions can be turned into beliefs and voluntary actions by system 2. In decision making under uncertainty, a cognative bias will thus interfere with the decision making process and have a impact on the thinking of system 2, which is why the two systems are relevant in project management.

This article will focus on the correlation between the two systems of thinking and identifying risk in project management.