b'ViewpointsJohn M. Kamensky is Senior Fellow at the IBM Center for The Business of Government.Some Underlying Concepts for Understanding Behavioral Science: System 1 and System 2 Thinking and Cognitive BiasIn explaining the historical evolution of concepts underpinning behavioral science, scholars note that before the 1940s the dominant model used to describe decision making features a rational decision maker who has clear and comprehensive knowledge of the environment, a well-organized system of preferences, and excellent computational skills to allow for the selection of optimal solutions.In the late 1940s and 1950s, scholars began to question the dominant decision-making model featuring a rational decision maker. An historical review of the field in a 2018 Public Administration Review article by Nicola Bell and his colleagues found that people make decisions for themselves and for others by relying on a limited number of heuristic principles [mental short cuts] that reduce the complex tasks of assessing probabilities and predicting values to simpler judgmental operations.Based on this new insight, they conclude that decision makers are prone to cognitive biases [errors in thinking] that systematically affect their estimates, judgments, and choices in any domain.What Is System 1 and System 2 Thinking? Pioneering psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky describe the differences between the use of heuristics and rational decision making as System 1 and System 2 thinking, where:System 1 thinking is perceptual, fast, intuitive, automatic, and effortless. An example is judging the potential actions of other drivers while driving home from work using the same route each day. The advantage of this use of mental shortcuts reduces complexity and allows fast, effortless, automatic and associative decision making. System 2 thinking is reason-based, slow, takes mental effort, and is rule governed. Judgments are based on intentional and explicit processes. An example is choosing a health plan. Sometimes it involves the use of external decision support models, software, or group decision making. Under System 1, the use of heuristics (rules of thumb/mental shortcuts) can be effective in that they reduce complexity. However, they tend to lead to systematic errors, which are called cognitive biases.What is Cognitive Bias? Award-winning author on emotional intelligence, Travis Bradberry, writes, Cognitive bias is the tendency to make irrational judgments in consistent patterns . . . Researchers have found that cognitive bias wreaks havoc by forcing people to make poor, irrational judgments . . . Since attention is a limited resource, people have to be selective about what they pay attention to in the world around them. Because of this, subtle biases can creep in and influence the way you see and think about the world. But cognitive bias isnt just one thing. One researcher has cataloged 170 different kinds of cognitive biases. 74 www.businessofgovernment.org The Business of Government'