On the Disposition to Think Analytically: Four Distinct Intuitive-Analytic Thinking Styles

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Existing measures often treat intuitive-analytic thinking as a single dimension.
• The dimensionality of cognitive styles remains an open question in research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To differentiate and validate distinct thinking styles beyond a single intuitive-analytic continuum.
• To assess the predictive validity of these distinct styles across various cognitive and social outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Development and validation of scales measuring four distinct thinking styles: Actively Open-minded Thinking, Close-Minded Thinking, Preference for Intuitive Thinking, and Preference for Effortful Thinking.
• Assessing the predictive validity of these styles against measures of epistemically suspect beliefs, bullshit receptivity, empathy, moral judgments, and COVID-19 related beliefs and news discernment.

Main Results:

• Four distinct thinking styles demonstrated significant predictive validity across multiple outcome measures.
• Actively Open-minded Thinking showed particular strength in predicting COVID-19 misperceptions and discerning true/false vaccination news, outperforming the Cognitive Reflection Test.
• Different subscales exhibited varying predictive strengths for different outcomes, supporting a multi-dimensional model.

Conclusions:

• Individuals vary along multiple dimensions of intuitive-analytic thinking, rather than a single spectrum.
• These distinct thinking style dimensions have significant implications for understanding diverse beliefs, judgments, and susceptibility to misinformation.