Conscious Use Variance

What variances are there in tendencies for people to use conscious thought compared to subconscious? What might be the causes of variances?

It seems that basically all people use both conscious thought and subconscious thought (even simultaneously) in different degrees, as I further described in my last post; Processing Proportions. There must be tendencies for some people to commonly use different degrees of each type of thought process, compared to other people. The amount, and cause of variance in tendencies may be difficult aspects to determine.

1 generalized method for coming to some estimate of tendencies for someone to use more conscious thought, might be very similar to what I hypothesized could be a generalized way to estimate intelligence, in a post from 10 days ago; Intelligence Inference. Intelligence and degree of use of conscious thought seem to be fairly correlated, as both seem to involve comprehension of cause and effect. I further described this correlation in my 2nd last post; Human Advantage. Based on this, a rough estimate for variance in tendencies to use conscious thought, could be to consider variance in levels of intelligence. 

Other than that, a simple way to personally get an idea of the variance of tendencies of different people, could be to think about experiences you’ve had or heard about, where other people tend to make decisions or choices using 1 method or another. When people have a choice to make, they might use 1 of 2 methods more often than the other;
1. Consider rational reasoning, and causes and effects of their choice

2. Make a quicker choice based on “intuition”, or “gut feeling”

Number 1 is more conscious thought, by accessing memory of details of how the factors involved in the circumstances at hand, will interact. Number 2 is accessing subconscious memory, without much focused awareness of any details of the memories, or the positive or negative reinforcement connected to those memories of factors involved in the circumstances.

The cause of these variances of tendencies to use different degrees of conscious thought, should likely come down to 2 aspects; genetics and development. The physical genetics of a person, as well as what they’ve learned throughout their life are likely the 2 biggest causes of someone’s tendencies for method of thought. In a post from 4 months ago; Intelligence; Inherent or Integrated, I considered those causes for intelligence, to likely be both genetic and developed. As intelligence seems mostly in sync with the degree of conscious thought used for more complex decisions, this should be a similar answer. 

The difference between these 2 causes, might be that genetics (or inherent ability) would be the base cause for capability. The maximum capability for someone’s tendency to use conscious thought, would be preset by birth, while development through life would cause a variance up to that maximum capability. Included in development which causes an adjustment on degree of typical use of conscious or subconscious thought, would be information learned. Certain information about concepts which can be learned in someone’s life, could have a significant influence on their usual thought methods. When a concept is learned and saved in memory, which can apply to many situations throughout life, this concept can work as a root for future circumstances to branch back to. Concepts learned, such as those which regard; problem solving skills, effective reasoning, or analysing cause and effect, could play a significant role in causing tendencies for someone to use more conscious, rather than subconscious thought, in some situations.

The variances for people to more commonly use conscious thought compared to subconscious, seem to be about the same as variances in intelligence level. Between the 2 likely causes of these variances, genetics would allow the maximum capabilities, while learned experiences and information would likely cause the outcome of their; Conscious Use Variance.