Our inner elephant is driven by intuition. On top of it sits a rider made out of reason, but she can’t control the elephant. Sometimes, if she’s lucky, she can slightly change the elephants way. This is when reason overrides.
If the elephant wants to stay in bed and not get up yet, reason can override. If the elephant wants to procrastinate and not get started (yet), reason can override (but it sure is hard to do).
The elephant goes the easy path, as it is used to. She sees some evidence that supports her view and concludes that her view must be true. Reason can override and nudge her gently in a different direction, where she does not look for confirmation, but for refutation by others.
Sometimes, our elephant has a hunch – an intuition about any topic. The rider doesn’t notice, she thinks the elephant is right. But it’s really intuition controlling her reasoning. If it doesn’t occur to reason that it can override, it won’t.