Wim De Neys

New work led by @jeremiebeucler.bsky.social who used LLMs to estimate stereotype strength in base-rate items. Great tool to create new material ;-)

Fast and slow insight. New paper with @jeremiebeucler.bsky.social showing that good convergent thinking is driven by sound intuitions. Modelling work links this to a denser semantic memory structure among good intuitors.

Wim De Neys: Intuitive Vs. Deliberative Thinkers - December 9, 2025 Podcast Episode · The Last Show with David Cooper · 2025-12-10 · 11m

Chat with David Cooper about our latest research on how humans and AI evaluate intuitive vs deliberative thinking podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/w...

Our paper with @zoepurcell.bsky.social, @luciecharlesneuro.bsky.social, and @wimdeneys.bsky.social
has been accepted at Behavior Research Methods! 🥳

Here is the updated preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...

Also, the baserater package is now on CRAN: cran.r-project.org/package=base...

#psynomBRM

10/10

Huge thanks to my great co-authors @zoepurcell.bsky.social , @luciecharlesneuro.bsky.social and @wimdeneys.bsky.social, and to my lab @lapsyde.bsky.social.

Stay tuned for the computational modeling part! 🤓

You can access the preprint here: osf.io/preprints/ps...

Humans and LLMs rate deliberation as superior to intuition on complex reasoning tasks - Communications Psychology People and LLMs evaluate deliberative reasoning more favorably than intuitive thinking—even when both yield accurate results. This preference appears to be intuitive itself and has implications for how we assess others’ and AI advise.

People and LLMs evaluate deliberative reasoning more favorably than intuitive thinking—even when both yield accurate results. This preference appears to be intuitive itself and has implications for how we assess others’ and AI advise.
@wimdeneys.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Paper is now published: www.nature.com/articles/s44...

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Happy to share that my first paper is out in Thinking & Reasoning! 📄📢
With Aikaterini Voudouri, @boissinesther.bsky.social & @wimdeneys.bsky.social we show that deliberate reasoning helps not just to correct but also to justify intuitive judgments.

🔗Full paper: shorturl.at/JTeTi
Quick thread below!

Moses, fast and slow ! @jeremiebeucler.bsky.social interesting evidence for sound intuiting (and reflection). My take home: Don't use semantic illusions as a pure test of cognitive reflection.

They should do something about the acronym though ;-)

"Defining deliberation for dual-process models of reasoning" is now published. Free online access to the published Nat Rev Psy version: rdcu.be/erM5T

🚨Check out our new paper with @boissinesther.bsky.social, Alexandra Delmas & @wimdeneys.bsky.social in Acta Psych!

📹 We show that video debiasing training can boost reasoning accuracy - not just deliberation, but intuition too!

🔓 Open access: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Quick summary👇

Goal: hopefully support more precise theorizing and empirical work on “System 2”—both in human and machine cognition. Full paper: osf.io/preprints/ps... (5/5)

I propose guiding principles to avoid problematic misconceptions and point to critical outstanding issues we need to address in the coming years. (4/5)

Key point is that deliberation should be understood as multifunctional, serving multiple, complementary purposes. (3/5)

Although deliberation is central to dual-process theories, its conceptualization remains vague. I sketch a framework clarifying what System 2 deliberation is and does. (2/5)

New forthcoming perspective paper in Nature Reviews Psychology: “Defining System 2 deliberation for dual-process models” preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...
(1/5)

On the responsibilities of intellectuals and the rise of bullshit jobs in universities You may never have considered yourself to be one. Why would you? But if you’re reading this, there is more than a likelihood that you are one. If you’re a

How to push back against the rise of endless administrative burden in academia?

It's been contested from the start :-) but good point: "examined" would be more accurate

(6/6)
This preference can also be misused.
If people trust deliberation intuitively, it means both humans & AI can appear more trustworthy simply by framing decisions as “carefully reasoned”—even if they aren’t.

Read the full study: doi.org/10.31234/osf...

(5/6)
Why might this matter (even for "fast-and-slow" haters 😉)?
1️⃣ Deliberation shapes trust in advice
2️⃣ AI models already simulate deliberation (e.g., chain-of-thought reasoning).
3️⃣ Knowing this, AI developers can boost trust & fight algorithm aversion.
But…

(4/6)
Even under time pressure or cognitive load, participants still rated deliberation as better—ironically, indicating that the deliberation preference is itself intuitive.

Interestingly, ChatGPT (3.5 & 4) showed the same preference, suggesting AI models encode human folk beliefs about reasoning

(3/6)

We asked participants to rate individuals who reasoned intuitively vs. deliberatively—while controlling whether the individual was portrayed as accurate or not.
Across all conditions, we find a strong preference for deliberation.

(2/6)
While dual process research has pinpointed the mechanics of intuitive and deliberate thinking, we still lack understanding of how people perceive and value these modes of thought—what might be termed a “folk theory” of fast-and-slow thinking.

New preprint: “Folk Thinking, Fast and Slow: Intuitive Preference for Deliberation in Humans and Machines”

Pop culture often praises intuition (“Blink”, Steve Jobs). But do we really trust it? Across 13 studies, we find a strong intuitive preference for deliberation.

tinyurl.com/8r54dmyn (1/6)

Short blog post about our work with Matthieu Raoelison & @wimdeneys.bsky.social for the Tango Horizon European project! 🧠🤖
👉 tango-horizon.eu/2025/01/16/h...

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