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Sep 11, 2023 · Decision-making. After consideration, a choice is made, or at least that is how it appears. Often, the decision is made before the process begins or during the process. Whenever the decision is made, this is the point at which an overt commitment to a particular course of action is self- or other-signalled. Implementation.
Decision-making usually involves a mixture of intuition and rational thinking; critical factors, including personal biases and blind spots, are often unconscious, which makes decision-making hard ...
- Overview
- Mental Shortcuts
- Poor Comparisons
- Optimism Bias
- Other Reasons for Bad Decision-Making
- How to Make Better Decisions
- A Word From Verywell
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People make thousands of decisions each and every day, some big and some small. While some of these choices turn out great, chances are that not every decision you make will be a good one.
When you look back, you may wonder why you made those decisions, particularly the ones that turned out poorly or led to feelings of regret. While it goes without saying that you will probably continue to make bad decisions from time to time, you can gain a deeper understanding of the process behind these sometimes irrational choices.
Many factors contribute to poor choices. Understanding how these processes work and influence your thinking may help you to make better decisions in the future.
What Are Heuristics?
Heuristics are mental rules or shortcuts that allow you to make judgments quite quickly and oftentimes quite accurately. But they can also lead to fuzzy thinking and poor decisions. One example is the anchoring bias. In many situations, people use an initial starting point as an anchor and then adjust it to yield a final estimate. For example, if you are buying a house and you know that homes in your target neighborhood typically sell for an average price of $375,000, you will probably use that figure to negotiate the purchase price of the home you choose. In a classic experiment by researchers Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, participants were asked to spin a wheel of fortune that offered a number between 0 and 100. The participants were then asked to guess how many African countries belonged to the United Nations. Those who had gotten a high number on the wheel of fortune were more likely to guess that there were many African countries in the U.N., while those who had gotten a lower number were likely to give a much lower estimate. Becoming more aware of how heuristics impact choices can help you avoid making bad decisions. For example, you can combat the anchoring bias by coming up with a range of possible estimates. So if you are buying a new car, come up with a range of reasonable prices rather than focusing on the overall average price of a particular vehicle.
Comparison is one tool that people use when making decisions. Because you know what things typically cost, you can compare options to select the best price. You assign value based on how items compare to other things.
But what happens when you make poor comparisons? Or when the items you compare your options to are not representative or equal? For example, how far out of your way would you go to save $25?
If you could save $25 on a $75 item by driving 15 minutes out of your way, you would probably do it. But if you could save $25 off a $10,000 item, would you still be willing to go out of your way to save the money? Even though both examples involve the same amount of savings, in most cases, people are less willing to travel further to save money on the more expensive item.
This is an example of faulty comparison. Since you are comparing the amount you save to the amount you pay, $25 seems like much greater savings when compared against a $75 item than when contrasted with a $10,000 item.
When making decisions, people often make rapid comparisons without thinking about their options.
To avoid making bad decisions, relying on logic and thoughtful examination of the options can sometimes be more important than relying on your immediate "gut reaction."
Surprisingly, people tend to have a natural-born optimism that can hamper good decision-making. In one study, researcher Tali Sharot asked participants what they thought the chances were of many unpleasant events, including being robbed or getting a terminal illness. After the people made predictions, the researchers told them the actual probabilities.
When people are told that the risk of something bad happening is lower than expected, they tend to adjust their predictions to match the new information they learned. When they discover that the risk of something bad happening is much higher than estimated, they tend to ignore the new information.
For example, if a person predicts that the odds of dying from smoking cigarettes is only 5%, but is then told that the real risk of dying is closer to 25%, they will likely ignore the new information and stick with their initial estimate.
Part of this overly optimistic outlook stems from a natural tendency to believe that bad things happen to others but not us. When people hear about something tragic or unpleasant happening to another person, they often look for things the person might have done to cause the problem. This tendency to blame the victims protects people from admitting that they are just as susceptible to tragedy as anyone else.
Sharot refers to this as the optimism bias, or our tendency to overestimate the likelihood of experiencing good events while underestimating the likelihood of experiencing bad events. She suggests that this isn't necessarily a matter of believing that things will magically fall into place, but instead overconfidence in our abilities to make good things happen.
Because you might be overly optimistic about your abilities and prospects, you are more likely to believe that your decisions are the best.
Several other factors can contribute to poor choices. Both good and bad decisions are susceptible to influences including:
•Automatic thinking: People sometimes engage in actions almost on autopilot without giving them much thought, particularly when performing routine tasks. This automatic thinking can save time and cognitive resources, but can sometimes lead to poor choices.
•Cognitive biases: People are prone to systematic cognitive errors that bias how they process and interpret information. Such biases also affect the type of judgments and decisions that they make.
•Individual differences: Factors such as age and socioeconomic status can also impact the choices people make. Older people may make different choices than younger people for various reasons, and the options open to people often depend on the financial resources available to them.
•Past experiences: The choices people are often very influenced by the experiences that they have had in the past. In many cases, they might base their choices on things that worked previously.
•Multitasking: Trying to juggle too much at once can have cognitive costs, making poor decisions more likely.
While some of the factors that lead to bad decision-making are difficult to eliminate, there are steps that you can take to help make better choices. Some strategies that can be helpful:
•Prioritize important decisions. This can combat decision fatigue and ensure you have the necessary cognitive resources to make the best choices.
•Eliminate distractions. If many different things compete for your attention, you're less likely to have the time, energy, and attention to focus on the available information and choices.
•Consider all of the options. While it might save time to just focus on the most obvious choice, weighing all the options might help you make a better decision.
•Take a break and come back later. It's easy to get overwhelmed, especially when making a complex or important decision. Take a break and give yourself some time so you can come back to it with a fresh eye.
•Ask for outside input. Talking to other people can be a great way to get different perspectives on the situation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are teenagers bad at decision-making? The areas of the brain that help regulate behavior and control decisions are not fully developed until people reach early adulthood. Because of this, teens tend to respond impulsively without fully considering the consequences of their choices. How do you stop someone from making a bad decision? While you can't force someone to change their mind, you can act as a positive influence. You might start by asking them to take a break and consider other options before making up their mind. Encourage them to talk to someone else if they struggle with a decision. If they persist with their poor decision, focus on being empathetic and forgiving while gently encouraging them to make better choices going forward. How do you get over making a bad decision? Instead of ruminating over feelings of regret, focus on practicing self-acceptance. Forgive yourself for your mistake, accept that regret is sometimes a part of life, and focus on what you can learn from the mistake. Using those lessons to help you make better decisions can help you reframe your regrets so that you feel grateful for your good choices and appreciative of the lessons you have learned. Why does confirmation bias cause bad decision-making? Confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias in which people favor information that confirms their existing beliefs. This bias leads people to ignore data that contradict their current thinking, contributing to distorted perceptions of reality. Instead of basing decisions on all of the facts, confirmation bias leads people to base their choices on limited, biased information. Learn More: What Is the Confirmation Bias? How to Be Less Indecisive By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."
Aug 1, 2019 · Decision-making effectiveness suffers by up to 40% when we focus on two cognitive tasks at the same time. So when you need to make important decisions, carve out and commit to several blocks of ...
- Mike Erwin
May 4, 2018 · Decision making process: What happens when we change decisions? Scientists have discovered that our ability to stop or modify a planned behavior comes from a single region within the brain’s prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is an area of the brain that involves planning and other higher mental purposes.
Feb 21, 2024 · Scientists have gained new insights into how neurons in the brain communicate during a decision, and how the connections between neurons may help reinforce a choice. The study — conducted in mice and led by neuroscientists at Harvard Medical School — is the first to combine structural, functional, and behavioral analyses to explore how neuron-to-neuron connections support decision-making.
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Apr 11, 2024 · Step 7: Review the Decision. Once the decision is made and put into action, assess the outcomes. Did the decision solve the problem? If not, modifications might be necessary. Decision-Making Process Examples. Here are a few examples of decision-making processes in various contexts: Personal Decision: Buying a Car
