Making decisions is hard? For most people it is, for some it even is hard to overcome. Since the weather just has gone sunny, you may find yourself standing in line for an ice-cream, in front of you a whole family trying to decide whether they shall take chocolat, banana-vanille or "boerenjongens" (literaly: Country boys, in this case: icecream with brandied raisins). They were even trying to be rational about it (if we all take chocolat, then little... aso)
Unfortunately, people are not very good in rational decisions for everyday use. We tend to trust our mental models (and we should!) and make emotional decisions. This is smart, because usually we do not have time to make a rational decision ("if I take a Papsi Max instead then it is low on sugar, but a Cherry-coke... Oh, no, I am late for class... Or shall I take a Rivella instead? It is also low in sugar and it's got this extraordinary taste, but maybe I should take a drink without bubbles, because that's gonna make me feel... Oh hell, I'll just have a black coffee. Oh, wait, there's also Wiener Melange in the new machine, I haven't tried it yet," aso aso).
Imagine this while driving a car? With another car driving towards you? (No, you're not playing chicken, you're trying to get the kid to school, to be in time for your work, and trying to decide what to eat tonight.) If you start thinking rational about the car in front of you, you may never know what you will eat tonight. You just don't have the time.
Suppose I have a long rope, from one building to another, say 10 meters up in the air (I had some left from my kid's kite), and I would ask you to test its strength by hanging at it.
You would say "no". (And that's probably why I won't ask you).
Is this a rational decision?
No, it isn't. You didn't take time to think about. You didn't need to, but therefor it is an emotional decision. Just be glad we are good at emotional decisions.
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4 comments:
I think you're mixing up the human emotion and the subconscious.
I'm not testing the strength of the rope because I know that it won't hold. This knowledge is based on previous experiences I had. My brain converts this to a gut 'feeling' which is not actually a feeling but quite rational.
Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book about this called Blink (The Power of Thinking Without Thinking). Its premise is that people can make subconscious rational decisions in the "blink" of an eye. I think that you'd find it an interesting read.
Hi Andreas,
interesting choice of words you have. Your previous experiences lead you to a feeling which is not a feeling?
We can split hairs over definitions, but personally I can't imagine how one would be able to think without thinking. Thinking does take time, and when you don't take time (and in a lot of cases you shouldn't!), it cannot be rational.
Even if something is nestled in your mind after rational comparing the possible outcomes, you still would have to decide whether you would follow up your predefined set. Even that does take time, time you sometime cannot spare.
Part of the problem seems to be the complexity of our brains. Part of our brain still functions like the "Lizard-brain". Lizards have rather simple brains. They just need to decide whether something can be eaten, or has to be run away from. Our brains can function the same way. When we taste something bad, we spit it out. Of course we can do more. We can force ourselves to try it nevertheless. This way we manage to learn to smoke, drink coffee, eat Brussels sprouts aso. Those are the cases when we make a rational (more or less) decision. Spitting out something bad is an emotional decision.
Thank you for mentioning Malcolm Gladwell's book, I am curious. Let me return the favour: you may find Donald A. Norman's book "Emotional Design" very interesting.
Emotional Design was already on my reading list, so I guess you're spot on;)
Maybe we can extend the favor to actually lending each other the books? You get to read my copy of Blink and I get to read your copy of Emotional Design. I think it would be a good basis for further conversation about this -interesting imo- subject.
Let me know if you're interested... :-)
Hi Andreas,
so you do have a good taste in books! I am interested, only do not have the time to read at this moment (I do, but I already have a list to read). I'll try to track down my copy of Norman.
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