Intuitive Thinking Style Research Articles

Intuitive thinking style predicts the anthropomorphic perception of everyday objects

Intuitive thinking style predicts the anthropomorphic perception of everyday objects

Rational engagement buffers the effect of conservatism on one's reported relevance of the theory of evolution

AbstractPrevious research has noted one's knowledge of and attitudes toward the theory of evolution is negatively predicted by one's political ideology, specifically how conservative the individual identifies, and positively predicted by one's level rational thinking. The present research expands on this past research by examining the roles of political conservatism and rational thinking in predicting one's reported relevance of evolutionary theory in a multi‐study design. In Study 1, a sample of undergraduate college students (N = 198) completed a survey with measures of conservatism, rational and intuitive thinking styles, including both engagement and ability, and attitudes toward the relevance of evolutionary theory. A multiple mediator model revealed that conservatism was a negative predictor rational engagement, rational engagement was a positive predictor of relevance of evolution, and the indirect effect of conservatism on relevance of evolution through rational engagement was significant. In Study 2, a new sample of college students (N = 146) completed an experiment where rational engagement was manipulated. Conservatism negatively predicted relevance of evolution for individuals who were not primed to engage in rational thought and were below average in rational ability. Conversely, conservatism was not a significant predictor of relevance of evolution for individuals who were primed to engage in rational thought, and who had below average rational ability scores. These results suggest that when individuals are lower in rational ability, priming for rational engagement may be effective at buffering the effect of conservatism on one's reported relevance of evolution. Thus, examining additional procedures for increasing one's rational engagement may be useful for educators and researchers interested in reducing the effects of political ideology on one's knowledge of and attitudes toward evolution.

Religious Unbelief in Three Western European Countries: Identifying and Characterizing Unbeliever Types Using Latent Class Analysis

ABSTRACTThe different forms of religious unbelief are still much of an open question. Using data (N = 4,404) from three European countries—Finland, Denmark, and the Netherlands—we sought to identify underlying unbeliever groups among those with the strongest disbelief in God (N = 2,258). Latent class analyses were conducted on the nontheistic supernatural beliefs of this subsection of participants, resulting in the same three unbeliever groups in each country: analytic atheists, spiritual but not religious (SBNR), and uncertain nonbelievers. Next, we explored these groups on a variety of dimensions, especially on the group members’ attitudes to religion, certainty of beliefs, cognitive dispositions, and worldview. One-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) revealed similarities as well as distinct characters for each of the latent groups. The groups differed most in intuitive thinking style, overmentalizing bias, and other ontological confusions. To compare the latent groups to all other individuals who took part in the study, two discriminant analyses were run with all participants. This resulted in four meaningful dimensions that supported and extended the ANOVAs findings and allowed for the consideration of other (non)believers. Overall, this study supports earlier findings on analytic atheists and SBNR while providing new information about their dispositions. Of interest, the uncertain nonbeliever group has been largely unexplored previously, and it should gain more attention in future studies.

Relating rational and experiential thinking styles with trait emotional intelligence in broader personality space

The usual distinction between rational and intuitive thinking styles is still a subject of scientific debate, as there is no consensus about their nature, mutual relations and relations to other personality constructs. Cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST) proposes rational and experiential thinking styles as original personality constructs not fully explainable by five-factor personality models. Following CEST, we aimed to examine: 1. The uniqueness of rational and experiential dimensions by relating them to other personality constructs: trait emotional intelligence (TEI) and HEXACO; 2. Thinking style profiles defined through combined rational and experiential dimensions, and the possible role of TEI in understanding them. A total of 270 undergraduate students (82% females) completed the TEIQue-SF, REI-40, and HEXACO-PI-R. Our results showed that constructs from all three paradigms were low to moderately correlated to each other. TEI had incremental validity in explaining both rational and experiential dimensions, but large amounts of their variances remained unexplained by both TEI and HEXACO. We revealed four thinking style profiles defined through combined rational and experiential dimensions. TEI was the highest when both dimensions were high and the lowest when both were low, which could be related to processes of understanding and managing emotional functioning – proposed as an essential part of TEI, while within CEST they are seen as the way in which rationality influences experientiality. This finding might be of specific significance for understanding irrationality as not exclusively related to high intuition, but to low rationality as well.

Developing software beyond customer needs and plans: an exploratory study of its forms and individual-level drivers

Excessive software development is the tendency to develop new software above and beyond the requirements of the market and/or planned specifications. It is a widespread phenomenon involving both risks and flexibility advantages. As it represents a challenging dilemma for software developers, it is important to study its human origins. Drawing on the tripartite model of individual attitudes, this study investigates the influence of developers’s cognitive (intuitive and rational thinking styles), affective (emotional attachment) and behavioural (reliance on past experiences) traits on two forms of excess, beyond needs and beyond plans. Using survey data on 307 software developers, this study shows that different manifestations of excess are associated with distinct traits of software developers. Emotional attachment drives beyond needs excess. A positive (negative) association is found between relying on past experiences and beyond needs excess (beyond plans excess). An intuitive cognitive style fosters the inclusion of extra features in the new product scope, whereas a rational style might lead to developing one-size-fits-all software that targets the needs of a broad user base. These findings contribute to research on the development of digital new products and production technologies by offering a comprehensive yet fine-grained picture of excessive software development’s nature and drivers.

Organic Food Appeals to Intuition and Triggers Stereotypes

Evidence suggests that the benefits of organic food are overstated. In study 1, factors predicting positive attitudes toward organic food (OF), food processing and additives were investigated. Intuitive thinking style was the strongest predictor, followed by categorical thinking, belief in simplicity of knowledge and susceptibility to health myths. In Study 2, the effect of OF consumer status on perceived warmth and competence was examined. OF-positive participants rated the OF consumer similarly as the conventional consumer. However, OF-negative participants regarded the OF consumer as warmer but less competent than the conventional consumer. In Study 3, perceptions of a couple were examined similarly. OF consumer couple's relationship was more idealized by the OF-positive participants whereas other participants regarded the OF consumer couple's relationship as less satisfactory. In addition, intuitive thinking style increased positive judgments about the stimulus persons in Studies 2 and 3. Eating organic food may thus evoke positive and negative stereotypes, and intuitive thinkers may be especially receptive to OF marketing and influenced by a preference for natural.

ANALYSIS OF WRESTLERS’ THINKING STYLES

The objective of this study is to analyze the thinking styles of wrestlers. 267 licensed wrestlers participated in the study. “Rational-Experiential Thinking Styles Inventory” developed by Epstein et al. (1996) and adapted into Turkish by Bulus (2003) was used to find out the thinking styles of wrestlers. In statistical analysis of the data, t test was used for independent groups while one way variance analysis was used for the comparison of multiple groups. When the rational thinking style levels of wrestlers were examined in terms of age, no statistical difference was found (p>0.05). When the intuitive thinking style levels of wrestlers were examined in terms of age, it was found that wrestlers between the ages 21 and 27 had higher intuitive thinking style levels than wrestlers between the ages 18 and 20 (p 0.05). It was found that being a national team athlete and sports age did not have an influence on rational or intuitive thinking styles of athletes (p>0.05). As a conclusion, when athletes’ scores from thinking styles were examined, it was found that both thinking styles were used at an intermediate level. It was found that age had an influence on intuitive thinking style, while being in a high school or university student, being in a national team athlete and sports age did not have an influence on thinking styles. Article visualizations:

Supernatural Belief Is Not Modulated by Intuitive Thinking Style or Cognitive Inhibition

According to the Intuitive Belief Hypothesis, supernatural belief relies heavily on intuitive thinking—and decreases when analytic thinking is engaged. After pointing out various limitations in prior attempts to support this Intuitive Belief Hypothesis, we test it across three new studies using a variety of paradigms, ranging from a pilgrimage field study to a neurostimulation experiment. In all three studies, we found no relationship between intuitive or analytical thinking and supernatural belief. We conclude that it is premature to explain belief in gods as ‘intuitive’, and that other factors, such as socio-cultural upbringing, are likely to play a greater role in the emergence and maintenance of supernatural belief than cognitive style.

Perception of Risk and Terrorism-Related Behavior Change: Dual Influences of Probabilistic Reasoning and Reality Testing.

The present study assessed the degree to which probabilistic reasoning performance and thinking style influenced perception of risk and self-reported levels of terrorism-related behavior change. A sample of 263 respondents, recruited via convenience sampling, completed a series of measures comprising probabilistic reasoning tasks (perception of randomness, base rate, probability, and conjunction fallacy), the Reality Testing subscale of the Inventory of Personality Organization (IPO-RT), the Domain-Specific Risk-Taking Scale, and a terrorism-related behavior change scale. Structural equation modeling examined three progressive models. Firstly, the Independence Model assumed that probabilistic reasoning, perception of risk and reality testing independently predicted terrorism-related behavior change. Secondly, the Mediation Model supposed that probabilistic reasoning and reality testing correlated, and indirectly predicted terrorism-related behavior change through perception of risk. Lastly, the Dual-Influence Model proposed that probabilistic reasoning indirectly predicted terrorism-related behavior change via perception of risk, independent of reality testing. Results indicated that performance on probabilistic reasoning tasks most strongly predicted perception of risk, and preference for an intuitive thinking style (measured by the IPO-RT) best explained terrorism-related behavior change. The combination of perception of risk with probabilistic reasoning ability in the Dual-Influence Model enhanced the predictive power of the analytical-rational route, with conjunction fallacy having a significant indirect effect on terrorism-related behavior change via perception of risk. The Dual-Influence Model possessed superior fit and reported similar predictive relations between intuitive-experiential and analytical-rational routes and terrorism-related behavior change. The discussion critically examines these findings in relation to dual-processing frameworks. This includes considering the limitations of current operationalisations and recommendations for future research that align outcomes and subsequent work more closely to specific dual-process models.

Analytic Thought Training Promotes Liberalism on Contextualized (But Not Stable) Political Opinions

Previous research revealed that inducing an intuitive thinking style led people to adopt more conservative social and economic attitudes. No prior study, however, has shown a causal effect of analytic cognitive style (ACS) on political conservatism. It is also not clear whether these cognitive-style manipulations influence stable or contextualized (less stable) political attitudes differentially. The current research investigated the causal effect of ACS on both stable and contextualized political opinions. In Experiment 1, we briefly trained participants to think analytically (or not) and assessed their contextualized and stable political attitudes. Those in the analytic thinking group responded more positively to liberal (but not conservative) arguments on contextualized opinions. However, no significant change occurred in stable opinions. In Experiment 2, we replicated this basic finding with a larger sample. Thus, the results demonstrate that inducing ACS causally influences contextualized liberal attitudes, but not stable ones.

Cognitive Style and Creative Quality: Influence on Academic Achievement of University Students in Indonesia

Reasoning is a process to solve the problem. This process needs cognitive functions in thinking, learning, and making decision. Cognitive style is a term to explain human natural preferences in gathering and processing information. Humans appears to reason using two cognitive processing styles; the first system is called as intuitive thinking style that is spontaneous, effortless, and without conscious search, whereas the second system is called as reflective or analytical thinking that works in a deliberate, analytical, procedural, and controllable process. In human context, sometimes people encounter difficult problem or unknown situation that have to be coped by ideas that are both novel and adaptive to the task constraints. People who solve the problem successfully are called creative. Creativity is the base to enhance competitiveness among students that might result in good academic performance. The present study examined cognitive style and creative quality in affecting academic achievement of university students in Indonesia. The result showed that students who used analytical thinking tended to have higher academic success, especially in life science majors. Moreover, it was found that students would need to materialize their creative potential to reach greater academic achievement in demanding classes; for instance, the final year of undergraduate program.

Does Poor Understanding of Physical World Predict Religious and Paranormal Beliefs?

SummaryAlthough supernatural beliefs often paint a peculiar picture about the physical world, the possibility that the beliefs might be based on inadequate understanding of the non‐social world has not received research attention. In this study (N = 258), we therefore examined how physical‐world skills and knowledge predict religious and paranormal beliefs. The results showed that supernatural beliefs correlated with all variables that were included, namely, with low systemizing, poor intuitive physics skills, poor mechanical ability, poor mental rotation, low school grades in mathematics and physics, poor common knowledge about physical and biological phenomena, intuitive and analytical thinking styles, and in particular, with assigning mentality to non‐mental phenomena. Regression analyses indicated that the strongest predictors of the beliefs were overall physical capability (a factor representing most physical skills, interests, and knowledge) and intuitive thinking style. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An attempt to clarify the link between cognitive style and political ideology: A non-western replication and extension

AbstractPrevious studies relating low-effort or intuitive thinking to political conservatism are limited to Western cultures. Using Turkish and predominantly Muslim samples, Study 1 found that analytic cognitive style (ACS) is negatively correlated with political conservatism. Study 2 found that ACS correlates negatively with political orientation and with social and personal conservatism, but not with economic conservatism. It also examined other variables that might help to explain this correlation. Study 3 tried to manipulate ACS via two different standard priming procedures in two different samples, but our manipulation checks failed. Study 4 manipulated intuitive thinking style via cognitive load manipulation to see whether it enhances conservatism for contextualized political attitudes but we did not find a significant effect. Overall, the results indicate that social liberals tend to think more analytically than conservatives and people’s long term political attitudes may be resistant to experimental manipulations.

Trust Your Instincts: The Relationship Between Intuitive Decision Making And Happiness

Epstein (1994; 2003) proposed that there are two cognitive information processing systems that operate in parallel: the intuitive thinking style and the rational thinking style. Decisional fit occurs when the preferred thinking style is applied to making a decision and research has shown that this fit increases the value of the outcome of a decision. Additionally, decisional fit leads to less regret, even when post hoc evaluations show the decision to be incorrect. It has not yet been determined whether decisional fit correlates with greater happiness and hence, the purpose of the current study was to investigate the difference between styles of thinking, styles of decision making and the impact of decisional fit on happiness scores. Individual differences in thinking and decision style were measured using an online interactive questionnaire (N = 100), and an ANOVA, hierarchical multiple regression, and a series of t-tests, were used to investigate the relationship between thinking style, decision style, decisional fit, and happiness, thereby addressing a gap in the existing literature. The major findings from the current study show that intuitive thinking has a strong positive correlation with happiness; that intuitive thinkers are more likely to utilize intuitive decisional style, than rational thinkers; and that when both rational and intuitive thinkers experienced decisional fit, higher ratings of happiness were reported. Explanations and recommendations for future studies are outlined in the discussion.

Thinking styles and decision making: A meta-analysis.

This meta-analysis examined whether tendencies to use reflective and intuitive thinking styles predicted decision performance (normatively correct responding) and decision experience (e.g., speed, enjoyment) on a range of decision-making tasks. A pooled sample of 17,704 participants (Mage = 25 years) from 89 samples produced small but significant weighted average effects for reflection on performance (r = .11) and experience (r = .14). Intuition was negatively associated with performance (r = -.09) but positively associated with experience (r = .06). Moderation analyses using 499 effect sizes revealed heterogeneity across task-theory match/mismatch, task type, description-based versus experience-based decisions, time pressure, age, and measure type. Effects of both thinking styles were strongest when the task matched the theoretical strengths of the thinking style (up to r = .29). Specific tasks that produced the largest thinking style effects (up to r = .35) were also consistent with system characteristics. Time pressure weakened the effects of reflection, but not intuition, on performance. Effect sizes for reflection on performance were largest for individuals aged either 12 to 18 years or 25+ (up to r = .18), and the effects of both reflection and intuition on experience were largest for adults aged 25+ (up to r = .27). Overall, our results indicate that associations between thinking styles and decision outcomes are context dependent. To improve decision performance and experience, decision architects and educators should carefully consider both individual differences in the decision maker and the nature of the decision task.

Examination of Thinking Styles of Trainers from Different Branches

Thinking styles are a matter of choice in individuals’ use of their abilities. In other words, they are processes that determine individuals’ attitude towards the problems they encounter and their way of self-expression in the face of these problems. It is considered each athlete and trainer has unique ways in achieving their goals and succeeding. Starting from this, in our study we aim to examine “Thinking Styles of Trainers of Different Branches”. 50 trainers, 20 females and 30 males, who coach in different branches in Elazig city center, participated in our study. In the study, it was used a personal information form to gather participants’ demographical information “their gender, being trainer of individual or team sports, year of coaching and educational level” and the REI (Rational Experiential Inventory) developed by Epstein et al. to determine their thinking styles. Consequently, it has been observed the rational and intuitive thinking styles of the trainers from different branches are sufficient in our study. In the light of the findings, it has been concluded that trainers of team sports have high levels of analytical-rational thinking, “participating-not participating in cognitive activities and enjoying-not enjoying cognitive activities”, while trainers of individual sports have high levels of intuitive thinking “data processing and trusting-not trusting their feelings and first impressions in their daily life”. Our study has importance since it is believed it provides enlightening information for trainers and athletes in their choice of appropriate methods and techniques while performing and coaching and also it forms literature for future studies.

Major accident prevention decision-making: A large-scale survey-based analysis

Decision-making under risk and uncertainty is not straightforward. This paper investigates how people make decisions when they need to choose between prevention and production investments and the decision involves risks and uncertainties that could have major negative consequences. A questionnaire was conducted among 405 students at the University of Antwerp, in Belgium. With regard to decision-making under risk, the findings reveal that the respondents behaved in a more risk-averse manner than predicted by the theory of expected values. Concerning decision-making under uncertainty, the respondents also displayed more risk-averse decision-making behaviour than anticipated, especially under circumstances of complete uncertainty. The study also shows that men are more likely to behave in a more risk-seeking manner than women are, and that people with a high intuitive thinking style are less risk-averse than people with a low intuitive thinking style. Furthermore, people with a high rational thinking style are more risk-averse than people with a low rational thinking style, and respondents with a high sensation-seeking style make decisions in a more risk-seeking way than respondents with a low sensation-seeking style.

A Standardized Patient Model to Teach and Assess Professionalism and Communication Skills: The Effect of Personality Type on Performance

Teaching and assessing professionalism and interpersonal communication skills can be more difficult for surgical residency programs than teaching medical knowledge or patient care, for which many structured educational curricula and assessment tools exist. Residents often learn these skills indirectly, by observing the behavior of their attendings when communicating with patients and colleagues. The purpose of this study was to assess the results of an educational curriculum we created to teach and assess our residents in professionalism and communication. We assessed resident and faculty prior education in delivering bad news to patients. Residents then participated in a standardized patient (SP) encounter to deliver bad news to a patient's family regarding a severe burn injury. Residents received feedback from the encounter and participated in an education curriculum on communication skills and professionalism. As a part of this curriculum, residents underwent assessment of communication style using the Myers-Briggs type inventory. The residents then participated in a second SP encounter discussing a severe pulmonary embolus with a patient's family. Resident performance on the SP evaluation correlated with an increased comfort in delivering bad news. Comfort in delivering bad news did not correlate with the amount of prior education on the topic for either residents or attendings. Most of our residents demonstrated an intuitive thinking style (NT) on the Myers-Briggs type inventory, very different from population norms. The lack of correlation between comfort in delivering bad news and prior education on the subject may indicate the difficulty in imparting communication and professionalism skills to residents effectively. Understanding communication style differences between our residents and the general population can help us teach professionalism and communication skills more effectively. With the next accreditation system, residency programs would need to demonstrate that residents are acquiring these skills in their training. SP encounters are effective in teaching and assessing these skills.

THE EFFECTS OF PROCESS-BASED TEACHING MODEL ON STUDENT TEACHERS’ LOGICAL/INTUITIVE THINKING SKILLS AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCES

The aim of this study is to analyze the effects of Process-based Teaching Model on student teachers’ logical and intuitive thinking skills as well as their academic performances at chemistry laboratory applications. The sample of this research consisted of 60 preservice teachers studying of Faculty of Education in Hacettepe University. Data were obtained via the “experimental desing with pre/posttest control group” evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively. The experimental group was taught within the process-based teaching model while the control group received training in traditional teacher centered education. The scores obtained by participating experimental and control groups from Logical/Intuitive Thinking Scale, Performance Test and Structured Grids as one of the alternative measurement and evaluation techniques were compared and contrasted. To determine the student teachers’ logical and intuitive thinking styles, the “Logical/Intuitive Thinking Scale” developed by Pacini and Epstein (1999) and adapted by Turk (2011). The study concluded that teaching chemistry using process-based teaching model improved students’ academic performance as well as their logical and intuitive thinking skills. Key words: logical and intuitive thinking, process-based teaching model, teacher education.

Influence of rational and intuitive thinking styles on food choice: Preliminary evidence from an eye-tracking study with yogurt labels

Consumers have a limited capacity to process all the information they face when deciding their food choices and usually rely on effortless and intuitive thoughts. According to the cognitive-experiential self theory human behavior is determined by the interaction of the two information processing systems: rational and intuitive. Consumers differ in their preference for these two thinking styles, which leads to differences in how they make their decisions. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the influence of rational and intuitive thinking styles on consumer choices and information processing when evaluating yogurt labels. Seventy-one consumers completed a choice-conjoint task with yogurt labels. Three 2-level variables were considered: fat and sugar content (low vs. high), label background (Background A vs. Background B), and traffic light system (present vs. absent). Consumers were presented with 8 choice sets composed of two labels on a computer screen, and were asked to indicate which one they would consume. Their eye movements were recorded during the task using an eye-tracker. After completing the conjoint task, consumers completed the Rational Experiential Inventory (REI). Latent class cluster analysis identified two consumer segments with different preference for analytic-rational or intuitive-experiential thinking styles. Consumers who predominantly relied on analytical-rational thinking engaged on a greater information search and a more thoughtful analysis of nutritional information for making their choices than consumers who preferred intuitive-experiential thinking. Besides, thinking style had a strong influence on the part-worth utilities of the evaluated variables. Results from the present work provide preliminary evidence about the influence of thinking style on consumer food choices, which can have potential implications for the design of communication strategies aimed at changing dietary patterns.