It is clear that white hat thinking excludes sich valuable things as hunch, intuition , judgement based on experience, feeling impression and opinion. That is, of course, the purpose of having the white hat: to have a way of asking only for information.
White hat thinking is a discipline and a direction. The thinker strives to be more neutral and more objective in the presentation of information. You can be asked to put on the white thinking hat or you can ask someone to put it on. You can also choose to put it on or to take it off.