I am not convinced that it’s easy, or even really possible, to change from one thinking style to the other.
I’ve noticed a lot that can be explained just by practice effects. Someone practices tai chi for 5 years, they think of movements in terms of tai chi. Someone practices basketball for 5 years, they think of moving a ball in terms of basketball. Someone practices intuition, and wordplay, and they think of problems in terms of those.
Basically, I think it’s like expertise (random google hit that seems to cite the research I was thinking of). Experts build a framework for understanding things. If someone has been immersed in fashion their whole life, they have a whole mental vocabulary for clothes that I am only starting to realize exists. I, as someone who has been immersed in problem-solving my whole life, have a vocabulary for doing it that I take for granted. But if someone who is bad at problem-solving practices logic, or I practice fashion, we can learn the structures experts use, just like people can learn a musical instrument without having been born knowing how to play.
From this perspective, the flaws listed for “intuitive” reasoners stem from a lack of practice / expertise at logical tasks, while the flaws listed for “logical” reasoners stem from a lack of practice / expertise at other kinds of tasks (like, apparently, the “picking up on Russian social norms” task). The reason the division in the OP makes sense is because becoming an expert takes a lot of time, so not everyone will be an expert at logical tasks if it’s not absolutely required, and people who become experts at logical tasks will be less likely to be experts at other things, due to time constraints.
But this is not to say that the division is always a good heuristic—it’s possible for people to be good at two tasks that would normally be put in different camps. And conversely, it’s possible for people to be good at neither of two tasks. That is to say, stupid people exist. The only reason (or so I claim) that we’re grouping professional writers together with stupid people in the “intuition” group is because they’re both non-experts at certain logical tasks—not because stupid people and professional writers form a natural kind.
Intuition thinkers probably wouldn’t have the foresight to learn Russian norms. However, they wouldn’t make a strict rule like “always smile”. Even if they did normally smile, in Russia, their intuition would be thrown off and would probably execute a more optimal strategy. Without a strict rule, they’d also be more attuned to the immediate environment and intuit that smiling isn’t customary.
I’ve noticed a lot that can be explained just by practice effects. Someone practices tai chi for 5 years, they think of movements in terms of tai chi. Someone practices basketball for 5 years, they think of moving a ball in terms of basketball. Someone practices intuition, and wordplay, and they think of problems in terms of those.
Basically, I think it’s like expertise (random google hit that seems to cite the research I was thinking of). Experts build a framework for understanding things. If someone has been immersed in fashion their whole life, they have a whole mental vocabulary for clothes that I am only starting to realize exists. I, as someone who has been immersed in problem-solving my whole life, have a vocabulary for doing it that I take for granted. But if someone who is bad at problem-solving practices logic, or I practice fashion, we can learn the structures experts use, just like people can learn a musical instrument without having been born knowing how to play.
From this perspective, the flaws listed for “intuitive” reasoners stem from a lack of practice / expertise at logical tasks, while the flaws listed for “logical” reasoners stem from a lack of practice / expertise at other kinds of tasks (like, apparently, the “picking up on Russian social norms” task). The reason the division in the OP makes sense is because becoming an expert takes a lot of time, so not everyone will be an expert at logical tasks if it’s not absolutely required, and people who become experts at logical tasks will be less likely to be experts at other things, due to time constraints.
But this is not to say that the division is always a good heuristic—it’s possible for people to be good at two tasks that would normally be put in different camps. And conversely, it’s possible for people to be good at neither of two tasks. That is to say, stupid people exist. The only reason (or so I claim) that we’re grouping professional writers together with stupid people in the “intuition” group is because they’re both non-experts at certain logical tasks—not because stupid people and professional writers form a natural kind.
Intuition thinkers probably wouldn’t have the foresight to learn Russian norms. However, they wouldn’t make a strict rule like “always smile”. Even if they did normally smile, in Russia, their intuition would be thrown off and would probably execute a more optimal strategy. Without a strict rule, they’d also be more attuned to the immediate environment and intuit that smiling isn’t customary.