The Mind

According to Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman in his seminal book “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, our memories are far more pliable than most of us believe – and our minds often deceive us.

Long ago, our minds evolved methods to quickly solve problems using trial & error and other forms of heuristics. (Heuristics are strategies derived from previous experiences with similar problems.) Psychologists call this quick-trigger, instinctive and emotional decision making process “System 1”.

A more logical, deliberative “slow” way of thinking – “System 2” – developed later in human evolution. System 2 helps us peer into the future. It requires concentration and effort, and often leads you to conclusions and choices very different from System 1.

Both systems leave us vulnerable to cognitive biases, that is, distortions of judgement. System 1 intuitions, rampant in contested custody cases, are particularly vulnerable. We’re going to quickly cover failures of memory and cognitive biases in the next few sections – and discuss how they might affect your thinking regarding your coparent and custody.