You must be making hundreds of decisions every time you finally complete your morning cup of tea. To sleep or wake up. To drink tea or coffee. Wearing this shirt or that one. They seem to be of little importance because your brain takes care of them automatically. Researchers have been looking into this matter for decades. The brief conclusion is that humans are much more irrational than one would expect. Your decisions depend on habits, mental heuristics, emotions, fatigue, the number of alternatives available to you, and even your surroundings. This article focuses on just one aspect of all of these factors. Our brain naturally conserves energy through these processes.
Your Mind’s Autopilot
Reflect on the very first decision that you have made today. The chances are that you have not considered all of its aspects carefully before making a decision. This was just something that you normally do. One of the reasons for this behaviour is habituation. Repeated exposure of your mind to something results in it getting less and less focused on that something.
With regular practice, behaviours become habits that environmental cues automatically trigger (Wood & Neal, 2007). Going down the same road to your workplace and ordering your usual lunch in the canteen are perfect illustrations of it. However, habits are not the only way people use mental shortcuts. In conditions when situations are ambiguous, humans turn to heuristics, which are mental shortcuts. Heuristics are fast enough and usually sufficient, but they cause systematic mistakes (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). These are three typical examples of heuristics:
- Availability: we assess the probability of an event based on the availability of its examples. One unpleasant experience at a restaurant leads us to stay away from it for weeks because one visit tells us very little.
- Representativeness: we evaluate probability by how similar the thing is to our internal stereotype of it. A neat stranger will seem more successful to us than a casually dressed one, regardless of their income.
- Anchoring: we base ourselves on the first available piece of information. The shirt that is marked down from ₹2,000 to ₹1,200 seems to be a good deal because of the initial ₹2,000 price tag.
Such methods can be great in terms of small decisions. No one should spend twenty minutes choosing his cereal in the morning. The problem lies in the fact that the autopilot silently becomes responsible for the decisions that require careful consideration. Saving effort is the main purpose of such decision-making strategies. The mind simply struggles to distinguish between tasks that require conscious attention and those it can handle automatically. Emotions come hand in hand with the autopilot.
When Feelings Join the Choice
For a long time, people viewed emotions as obstacles to sound decision-making. However, current studies show that the matter is much more complicated. For example, Bechara et al. (1997) let people choose cards from four different decks, where some of them were riskier than others Prior to the point at which the subjects were able to identify which decks posed more risks than others, they already had begun avoiding the risky decks. They received somatic markers, like sweating palms, and made better decisions. However, not all feelings require a say. According to Lerner et al., there are two categories.
Integral emotions originate from the decision process itself. A feeling of discomfort when taking a dark route to get home is a good illustration. Discomfort is associated with the circumstances and should therefore be taken into account. Incidental emotions result from something external but influence the decision-making process. For instance, you get trapped in traffic, become irritated and go to a store. Because of this, you might accept anything available or reject a good deal purely on the basis of how you feel. So what is seen here is that the issue becomes more apparent when emotions guide you in relation to the situation you have to make a choice for. When your emotions refer to the past experience of the day, then they are misleading.
Pre-presentation nervousness is emotion directed to the task ahead, and therefore it is appropriate. Emotion from a tiring commute affecting the way you view your co-worker’s suggestion during the meeting is irrelevant. There is a simple test to be applied. Consider asking, “What is this emotion about?”And if it concerns the choice you should make, use the emotion. Otherwise, wait until it subsides. Even if your emotions do not disturb you, there is still another restriction on your mind: its limited capacity.
When Choices and Tiredness Pile Up
A wider range of options appears to be a good thing. However, research by Iyengar & Lepper (2000) shows that when a wider selection of options is offered to customers, people feel overloaded with choice and are less satisfied with their decisions. Consumers were more likely to buy jam when they had six varieties to choose from than when they had twenty-four options. The large number of varieties attracted more attention but made people reluctant to actually choose some.
Choice also involves work. In a study conducted by Danziger et al. (2011), parole decisions were made by judges in Israel. The probability of an affirmative decision decreased as the session progressed and then increased again following a break for food. The judges were not deliberately biased; they were likely exhausted. This phenomenon is known as decision fatigue.
It can be observed in everyday scenarios. Shopping online late into the night often results in regret. It is by nighttime when the twentieth thing on your task list receives an answer hurriedly. There are a few tricks to follow. Narrowing down the number of choices you have to make, such as pre-selecting a shortlist of three movies and then making a choice out of them, is one of them. Try to make critical decisions during the day, after having lunch or taking some time off. Do not make crucial choices towards the end of the day. However, even when people are well-rested and have only a few options to consider, other factors can still influence their decisions.
How Your Surroundings Steer You
Every decision that you make is affected by the environment in which you find yourself, even when you are not aware of this. First, there is the concept of framing, which refers to the way in which the same information is stated. Tversky and Kahneman (1981) explained this through an example involving disease outbreaks. When people receive information framed in terms of gains, they tend to choose the safer option. However, when the same information is framed in terms of losses, they are more likely to choose the riskier option.
Defaults also count. Defaults refer to what will happen if you do nothing. Johnson and Goldstein (2003) found that countries with automatic organ donor registration had significantly higher donor rates than countries where individuals had to register voluntarily. The same goes for auto-renewed subscriptions and the next show that starts on its own.
The environment also acts as a prompt. According to Wansink & Sobal (2007), environmental factors such as portion sizes, packaging and proximity have an effect on consumption decisions. People are more likely to eat food placed on a desk than food stored in a cupboard far away in the house. Other people are also heuristics. As per Cialdini and Goldstein (2004), we learn from the actions of others what constitutes appropriate behaviour.
That is why we choose the restaurant where there is already a queue, or the product that has many reviews. This is an easy way to make the decision, and it often pays off. But the crowd is not always right. An example question will illustrate the point. Ask yourself, “Would I make the same choice if the wording were different, the default option were reversed, or no one else were choosing?” If your answer changes, an external factor is influencing your decision.
Conclusion
Decision-making regarding breakfast and career decisions uses similar processes. Habits, heuristics, emotions, tiredness, availability of options, and the environment outside all come to mind at once. All of these act as ways of conserving energy for the brain. This is not a problem. Evolution has shaped this process because it has worked in most situations. The challenge lies in knowing when to use it. The next time you face a menu, you may notice this familiar process at work.
Here is a practical tip. For small choices, let the autopilot run, and even set it up to help you. Keep fruit where you can see it. Lay out tomorrow’s clothes tonight. For choices that will still matter in a year, slow down. Make decisions when you feel well-rested. Ask what your feelings are really about. Check the wording and the default. Notice who else is steering you. Then decide on purpose.
References +
- Bechara, A., Damasio, H., Tranel, D., & Damasio, A. R. (1997). Deciding advantageously before knowing the advantageous strategy. Science, 275(5304), 1293–1295. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.275.5304.1293
- Cialdini, R. B., & Goldstein, N. J. (2004). Social influence: Compliance and conformity. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 591–621. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.142015
- Danziger, S., Levav, J., & Avnaim-Pesso, L. (2011). Extraneous factors in judicial decisions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(17), 6889–6892. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1018033108
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- Johnson, E. J., & Goldstein, D. (2003). Do defaults save lives? Science, 302(5649), 1338–1339. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1091721
- Lerner, J. S., Li, Y., Valdesolo, P., & Kassam, K. S. (2015). Emotion and decision making. Annual Review of Psychology, 66, 799–823. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010213- 115043
- Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science, 185(4157), 1124–1131. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.185.4157.1124
- Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1981). The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. Science, 211(4481), 453–458. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.7455683
- Wansink, B., & Sobal, J. (2007). Mindless eating: The 200 daily food decisions we overlook. Environment and Behaviour, 39(1), 106–123. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916506295573
- Wood, W., & Neal, D. T. (2007). A new look at habits and the habit-goal interface. Psychological Review, 114(4), 843–863. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.843
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