What comes to mind?
Adam Bear1, Samantha Bensinger2, Julian Jara-Ettinger3
1Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States.
Abstract:
When solving problems, like making predictions or choices, people often "sample" possibilities into mind. Here, we consider whether there is structure to the kinds of thoughts people sample by default-that is, without an explicit goal. Across three experiments we found that what comes to mind by default are samples from a probability distribution that combines what people think is likely and what they think is good. Experiment 1 found that the first quantities that come to mind for everyday behaviors and events are quantities that combine what is average and ideal. Experiment 2 found, in a manipulated context, that the distribution of numbers that come to mind resemble the mathematical product of the presented statistical distribution and a (softmax-transformed) prescriptive distribution. Experiment 3 replicated these findings in a visual domain. These results provide insight into the process generating people's conscious thoughts and invite new questions about the value of thinking about things that are both likely and good.
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