"Unbelievable. I completely misread it."
Sora stared at the test paper. Leo and Mira sat next to her.
Leo asked. "What?"
"This problem, I answered with intuition and got it wrong. If I looked carefully, the answer is obviously different."
Mira wrote in her notebook. "Intuition sometimes wrong."
"There's a theory in psychology that explains it," Leo said. "Dual process theory."
Sora showed interest. "Dual process?"
"Human thinking has two systems. System 1 is fast and intuitive. System 2 is slow and analytical."
"System 1 is intuition?"
"Yes. Automatic, requiring no effort. Excellent at pattern recognition."
Sora understood. "Then why did I get it wrong?"
Leo explained. "System 1 uses heuristics. Rules of thumb or shortcuts."
Mira wrote. "Shortcuts sometimes wrong."
"Exactly," Leo nodded. "Heuristics are efficient but can be inaccurate."
Sora asked for examples. "What heuristics exist?"
"Representativeness heuristic. Judging based on typical examples."
"For instance?"
Leo posed a problem. "Linda is 31, single, frank, and intelligent. As a student, she majored in philosophy and was concerned with social issues. Which is more probable: Linda is a bank teller, or Linda is a bank teller and feminist activist?"
Sora thought. "...Feminist activist?"
"Many people answer that," Leo said. "But logically, bank teller has higher probability."
"Why?"
"Bank teller and feminist activist is a subset of bank teller. A subset can't have higher probability than the whole."
Sora was surprised. "True... why did I get it wrong?"
"Misled by representativeness. Linda's description matches the image of a feminist."
Mira wrote. "Image overrides logic."
"Yes. This is cognitive bias."
Sora asked. "What other biases exist?"
"Confirmation bias. Searching only for information that supports your beliefs."
"That's also part of intuition?"
"A tendency of System 1. Ignoring contradictory information to reach comfortable conclusions."
Sora wrote in her notebook. "Intuition is fast but biased."
"So for important decisions, you need to use System 2," Leo said.
Mira wrote. "But always using System 2 is tiring."
"Exactly," Leo acknowledged. "System 2 consumes cognitive resources. So for everyday decisions, we rely on intuition."
Sora thought. "Then when should we trust intuition, and when doubt it?"
Leo answered. "In expert domains, intuition is reliable. Because you've learned patterns."
"Outside expertise?"
"Better to be skeptical. Especially for decisions involving emotions."
Mira wrote. "Emotions distort judgment."
"Called affect heuristic," Leo explained. "Tendency to judge liked things as safe, disliked things as dangerous."
Sora understood. "So thinking calmly is important."
"However, completely ignoring intuition is also wrong," Leo added. "Intuition sometimes reflects unconscious knowledge."
"Balance is needed?"
"Yes. Use intuition as a starting point, then verify with System 2."
Sora looked at the test paper. "For this problem too, I should have checked after answering intuitively."
"That's the ideal thought process," Leo acknowledged.
Mira wrote. "Days intuition fails are learning days."
Sora smiled. "Good words."
Leo continued. "Human cognition isn't perfect. But knowing biases allows improvement."
"Metacognition," Sora said. "The ability to observe one's own thinking."
"Exactly. Being aware of where your intuition comes from enables better decisions."
The three sat quietly thinking. Intuition is a powerful tool, but shouldn't be followed blindly.
"From now on, I'll trust intuition while maintaining a questioning attitude," Sora said.
Leo nodded. "That's an intellectual attitude."
Mira smiled slightly. Days when intuition fails aren't bad. They're opportunities to learn how the mind works.