AI am faced with similar dilemmas almost every morning. Should I wake up my wife with a kiss or should I let her sleep longer? Should I get out of bed or just hit the snooze button? And that too before drinking my first cup of coffee.
Our daily life is full of so called trivial decisions. People often feel foolish for overthinking low-stakes decisions, but research has shown that there are logical reasons for feeling this way. Understanding why you feel so stressed about small decisions can help you learn what to do about it.
Firstly, sometimes the sheer number of options overwhelms us, as we find it difficult to compare and contrast the options. scholar of economics long held belief It’s better to have more options. But in 2000, American psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Leeper challenged this idea.
In one of his studies, They set up the jam test table in a supermarket. Given fewer options, more consumers bought jam. About a third (30%) of customers went to buy jam when the stall had six flavours, but only 3% of customers bought jam when there were 24 flavours.
Drawing on these findings, American psychologist Barry Schwartz’s book The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is LessArgues that the abundance of options can cause people to worry.
People often lack, or believe they lack, the expertise to properly assess their options. For example, when making financial decisions. And if you have goals, the lack of certainty about how strictly you want to stick to them is probably going to give you a headache. A vague goal of “start saving more” isn’t giving you clarity when a friend suggests going out for dinner and your stomach is grumbling.
Plus, some decisions we call frivolous may actually be There are emotional high stakes. For example, deciding what to wear on a date might not be about fashion.
While each factor is sufficient to cause stress, when all factors are combined judgment anxiety It is only being increased.
it’s your personality
Another line of research has focused on the link between people’s decision strategies and well-being. Researchers have identified two main decision-making strategies: maximum and satisfactory, Maximizing is the tendency to try to find the best option. Satisficing, a term introduced by Nobel laureate Herbert Simon, is a strategy that terminates once an acceptable alternative is found.
Maximization and satisfaction have been linked to personality traits. There are people who tend to maximize and others who are more complacent.
Schwartz and his associates negative correlation found Between maximization propensity and feelings of life satisfaction. Maximizers (compared to satisficers) were also more likely to experience post-decision regret. One explanation is that maximizers are always thinking about what they could have done and how they could have made a better decision.
To be clear, the study did not examine major life decisions about marriage or health but focused on every day decisions (though common conclusion more serious medical decisions have been informed).
get used to it
decisions can be mentally exhausting, That’s why sometimes everyday choices seem difficult because you have decision fatigue.
William JamesOne of the greatest thinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries suggested Habits help us deal with these complexities, Habits take away the need to think. Investing your time in building habits can keep you from thinking through everyday decisions.
William James’s insight has inspired many contemporary researchers, An idea popularized by psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s book, thinking fast and slow, the assumption is that we use two different information processing mechanisms, system one and system two. The system is a subliminal, fast, intuitive one. This requires some effort. The system is two objective thinking.
Waking up every morning at the same time, kissing my wife and then making coffee has become a habit that has helped me avoid thinking too much about these activities. I let my system charge as much as it can, at least until I have my first cup of coffee.
american writer marilyn mann Said “Thinking can be the enemy of action”. Although I’m not sure I completely agree, his words resonate with many findings from psychology.
Herbert Simon developed the idea of satisfaction because he believed that human beings have limited cognitive and other abilities (such as memory and attention). Thinking too much – for example, whether or not to exercise today – can be stressful and sabotage your intention to do so.
You have to decide how to invest your resources (whether they be cognitive, emotional or physical). Investing them in thinking about exercising can deplete the energy you need to exercise.
When it comes to our daily decisions, reducing the number of choices can also help make the process easier. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was famous to wear the same outfit Almost every day (jeans and a turtle neck or a T-shirt) partly to simplify the decision process.
It’s about accepting that you have limited “decision making juice” and being conscious of how you use it. Reducing choices, developing good habits, and letting our so-called system take over can help us face our daily decisions.
Yaniv EnochProfessor in Decision Sciences, university of southampton
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