When we make decisions, we tend to rely on varying degrees of reflective thought, which is sometimes referred to as System 2 thinking. People with a high Need for Cognition (NC) have a disposition to favor System 2. They are motivated to put effort into their thinking because they enjoy being cognitively challenged (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982). This can be seen in a preference for complex over simple problems, for example, or tasks that involve coming up with new solutions to problems. NC positively impacts other aspects of individuals’ personality, such as curiosity, openness to experience, and conscientiousness (Sadowski & Cogburn, 1997).
In contrast to the controlled reflective thinking that dominates System 2, the characteristic features of System 1 include intuition, experience, and automatic thinking. Individuals with a high Faith in Intuition (FI) tend to trust their hunches, gut feelings or initial impressions (Epstein et al., 1996).
References
Cacioppo, J. T, & Petty, R. E. (1982). The need for cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 116-131.
Epstein, S., Pacini, R., Denes-Raj, V., & Heier, H. (1996). Individual differences in intuitive–experiential and analytical–rational thinking styles. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(2), 390-405.