Intuition and Deliberation: Two Systems for Strategizing in the Brain
Wen-Jui Kuo,1,*
Tomas Sjöström,2,*
Yu-Ping Chen,3
Yen-Hsiang Wang,4
Chen-Ying Huang3,
Dual-process theories distinguish between intuition (fast and
emotional) and reasoning (slow and controlled) as a basis for
human decision-making. We contrast dominance-solvable games,
which can be solved by step-by-step deliberative reasoning,
with pure coordination games, which must be solved intuitively.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found that the
middle frontal gyrus, the inferior parietal lobule, and the
precuneus were more active in dominance-solvable games than
in coordination games. The insula and anterior cingulate cortex
showed the opposite pattern. Moreover, precuneus activity correlates
positively with how "effortful" a dominance-solvable game is,
whereas insula activity correlates positively with how "effortless"
a coordination game is.
2 Department of Economics, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA.
3 Department of Economics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
4 Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
* These authors contributed equally to this work.
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: chenying{at}ntu.edu.tw
