Alex scrambled out of his/her chair and approaches the girl. She was looking around nervously before Alex came closer.
This is the cognitive bias of the Halo Effect (“what is beautiful is good”). Unlike the ‘popular’ girl, this girl was on the quiet side and ‘seemed’ nice. Maybe the other guy should have been chosen to avoid this cognitive bias?
“Have you partnered up with someone?” Alex asked.
She smiles slightly and fiddles her fingers, “Uh, not yet actually.”
“Would you like to partner up?” She nodded and Alex took the empty seat next to her.
The teacher called for the class’ attention and gave a set of quick questions to ask the partner. It was easy to give out the answers; Alex and the girl, Emma were done in no time.
“So, lately there’s been an outbreak of measles. What do you think about it?” Emma asks out of the blue.
This is where System 2 takes over because the question is bigger than what System 1 can answer and requires more thinking.
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