Measuring Individual Variation in Dual-Process Cognition

• In Event: 20420 - Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 1: Culture, Cognition, and Beliefs

Abstract

Dual-process models have become popular frameworks for studying action in sociology. However, many treatments implicitly assume that the extent to which individuals rely on automatic or deliberate processing is similar across individuals, with the use of cognitive processes largely determined by the demands of the immediate situation. Drawing on work from psychology, a handful of sociologists argue that individuals have different thinking dispositions that lead them to rely more or less on automatic/deliberate processing cross-situationally. Empirically adjudicating these positions and leveraging individual cognitive variation in sociological research depends first on us being able to accurately measure individual thinking dispositions. This paper therefore synthesizes existing research on measuring thinking dispositions with the aim of determining which measures are best validated and most likely to be useful to sociologists. Literature synthesis is supplemented by empirical tests using large, online samples to fill in gaps in validity testing and directly compare the performance of measures. Our ultimate goal is to recommend to sociologists one or more measures that capture individual variation in thinking dispositions that balance accuracy with ease of use—both of which are essential if a measure is to foster research.

Authors

• Andrew Miles, University of Toronto

• Salwa Khan, University of Toronto