The Behavioural Reflection Test: A time-efficient measure of reflective reasoning in morally and epistemically charged decisions

As the classic Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) suffers from widespread item familiarity, its ability to measure reflective reasoning—the tendency to override intuitive, System 1 responses—has been compromised. This study introduces the Behavioural Reflection Test (BRT) and a new, low-exposure bespoke CRT (bCRT) to determine if these tools can better capture how reflective individuals navigate complex, real-world decisions involving moral and epistemic stakes.

Researchers recruited 473 online participants to complete the new four-item bCRT alongside the traditional CRT2. The BRT required participants to provide open-ended justifications for decisions in two scenarios: a social conflict involving a restaurant booking and a health-related decision regarding medication. The study analyzed whether bCRT scores predicted evidence-based choices, high-quality information search strategies, and specific linguistic markers (using LIWC) associated with reflective thinking, such as risk-attentiveness and emotional engagement.

The bCRT demonstrated superior predictive power compared to the legacy CRT2. Higher bCRT scores were significantly associated with evidence-weighted decision-making, a greater willingness to enforce social norms, and more sophisticated information-seeking plans. Linguistically, higher bCRT scorers used more risk-related and emotionally engaged language. Crucially, these associations remained robust after statistical correction, whereas the familiarity-adjusted CRT2 failed to recover these behavioral signatures, suggesting that the bCRT is a more effective tool for assessing reflective tendencies in ecologically valid contexts.

This research provides a practical, time-efficient alternative to legacy cognitive measures. By moving beyond decontextualized brainteasers, the BRT offers a way to observe how reflective reasoning manifests in everyday life, such as how people evaluate health information or manage social obligations. It demonstrates that reflective thinking is not just a trait measured by puzzles, but a style of engagement that shapes how individuals interact with the modern, information-dense environment.