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by buzzy_hacker·3y ago·view on hn ↗
I've written about this phenomenon specifically with regard to intuitions and vegetarianism. Our intuitions are from system 1 thinking, which includes (for you and me) "yuck, meat". But those intuitions are downstream from things we have worked out from deliberate system 2 thinking.

So when I went vegetarian, it was very much not from an intuitive repulsion from meat (I loved meat), but from deliberate reasoning (system 2). But now that time has passed, I do have the "yuck, meat" response. It's like when you learn 12 x 12 = 144 for the first time, it takes work and effort. But then it becomes intuitive because you're so used to it, and your brain wants to cache that work.

So I imagine that after you reason about it for long enough (system 2), eventually your intuitions will update (system 1).

1 comments
I think you're spot on, my reaction toward meat is not an intuitive or instinctual human reaction given our evolution. It's something I've developed after becoming vegetarian. Speaking personally, long-running streaks are how I measure success, and my "days since I last ate meat" streak is my longest. This has caused me to develop a tiny paranoia of accidentally eating meat (e.g. ordering an impossible burger and the chef makes a real burger), which reinforces my "yuck, meat" intuition.