Analytic thinking and intuition yield better outcomes for distinct types of decision problems
the verdict
OVERSTATED
true in a weaker form than the claim states
refutedsupported
the weight of evidence
1 source for · 0 against
While a study notes that sound deliberation takes multiple forms, the evidence does not broadly settle specific claims regarding both analytic thinking and intuition yielding better outcomes for distinct decision problems.
what the evidence does support
Empirical studies directly testing decision quality or performance outcomes resulting from the application of analytic thinking versus intuition across specifically categorized decision problem types.
Judgment is often described in terms of an intuitive (System 1) versus deliberative (System 2) dichotomy, yet sound deliberation itself can take more than one form. Building on philosophical traditions and distinctions in treatment of sound judgment in economics and law, we propose that lay conceptions revolve around two distinct types of deliberate judgment: <i>rational</i>, emphasizing rule-based and utility-focused reasoning for well-defined problems, and <i>reasonable</i>, prioritizing context-sensitive and socially conscious reasoning for ill-defined problems. Across four studies in English-speaking Western samples (Studies 1-4; <i>N</i> = 2,130) and a Mandarin-speaking Chinese sample (Study 4; <i>N</i> = 697), participants described their notions of "sound" and "good" judgment, evaluated social scenarios, chose between candidates with distinct judgmental profiles, and categorized non-social objects. Results consistently showed that people view both rationality and reasonableness as common forms of deliberate sound judgment, while treating them as distinct. Participants preferred rational deliberation for algorithmic social roles linked to well-defined tasks and reasonable deliberation for interpretive roles linked to ill-defined tasks. Moreover, framing decisions as rational vs. reasonable influenced whether participants relied on rule-based vs. overall-similarity strategies in classification tasks. These findings suggest that lay understanding of sound judgment does not rely on a single standard of judgmental competence. Instead, people recognize that both rationality and reasonableness are critical for competent deliberation on different types of problems in life.