I'm not sure the identify model is always the worst thing to do. There are contexts where it provides a useful heuristic. For example, consider someone who is somewhat rational and skeptical, but not very well-informed. Then someone mentions some alternative medicine with an unclear causal explanation which they know nothing about. They need to make (within their bounded rationality) whether or not this is worth investigating. What would the stereotypical skeptic do will most of the time give the correct answer. Or consider the mathematician who is trying to estimate an apparent double sum, and says "what do mathematicians try to do when given a double sum? Interchange the order of summation." And surprisingly often, this works. The basic point is accurate, but one needs to be careful not to generalize here too much.