I have recently been struck by the number of books in a
relatively new genre, the latest of which is is The Chimp Paradox, written by
Dr Steve Peters, the psychologist behind the British Olympic Cycling Team, the
Sky cycling team, and Liverpool FC.
Peters describes the human brain as having two competing
systems. First, the limbic system, which Dr Peters calls it your ‘chimp’, (a
primal system which serves to keep you alive and away from the bottom of the
food chain), and second the frontal lobe where many thinking and decision
making functions have their origin (the ‘human’ in Peters’ lexicon). The chimp
and the human brain vie for supremacy in each of our skulls.
This is what nobel prize winning psychologist Daniel
Kahneman calls ‘system 1’ and ‘system 2’ in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow.
Kahneman is at the end of a remarkable career as a behavioural psychologist
investigating human behaviour and the unconscious influences on it - often
coming from the chimp, or ‘system 1’ brain.
Kahneman and Peters concede that both parts of our brain are
useful, but Malcolm Gladwell, another of the authors in this area, points out
in Blink, ‘system 1’ is what enables a firefighter to use all their experience
to say ‘this fire just doesn’t feel right’ and pull all their firemen out of a
building before it collapses. ‘System 1’ is what we use when we meet someone
when we are trying to decide whether to trust them, and helps us to make
accurate quick judgements of character.
Sometimes, of course, we use the ‘chimp’/’system 1’ when it
isn’t useful: when we explode with anger about something trivial, when we react
emotionally and disproportionately, when we lack perspective. This might be
because someone has invaded our animal territory, and we are actually trying to
defend it. Because ‘system 1’ is instinctive, we can also use it sometimes
without realising it.
One of Kahneman’s experiments relates to a workplace
honesty box for donations towards the cost of coffee, tea and other
refreshments. He found that a poster of a human face looking directly out of
the picture were put in the room, people would put more in the honesty box.
This is ‘system 1’, or our ‘chimp’, making people instinctively do something
which is actually irrational.
A key part of our learning as people as we get older is
which system to use for which decision. For example which is better for
choosing a university: ‘system 1’ - the ‘chimp’ - which goes on feel and
intuition, or ‘system 2’, which analyses all the costs and benefits of
different courses and different locations. Which might be better if we are
deciding whether or not to buy a pair of shoes? Which might be better in
deciding whether or not to go out with a boyfriend or girlfriend?
You can use both the ‘chimp’ and the ‘human’, ‘system 1’ and
‘system 2’, to make a decision too.
Perhaps education should involve more opportunity to reflect
on these issues, so that experience of decision making can be used to improve
young people’s capacities in these areas.
