Making decisions
17/11/22 00:51
I am generally quick to come to conclusions when faced with a decision. I make my choice and am likely to stick with it. Occasionally, I will experience some regret with a decision that I have made, but that is rare. For the most part I am able to make a choice and then to move on with my life in the light of that choice.
My wife Susan, on the other hand, is a bit slower to make choices. She likes to consider all of the options and think through all of the potential consequences before choosing. She will sometimes say that she is poor at making decisions, but I don’t observe her that way. She makes very good decisions. It is just that some decisions take more time than others and sometimes she takes more time to reach a conclusion than I do.
Earlier in our relationship this difference between us caused some tension. When we were faced with a major choice, I might come to a quick decision and then advocate for my point of view, while she didn’t want to get into an argument with me, but rather wanted to have more time to make the decision. I would think that I had the right choice, and she would want to check to make sure that it was the right choice. Over the years, we began to refine our skills at making decisions together. I learned a lot of respect for her style of making decisions. She grew in trust of my decision-making process. Now that we have been married for 49 1/2 years, we have arrived at a process that allows both of us to trust the other’s wisdom and way of making choices.
Researchers who study how decision are made point out that there are to biases that are more common when decisions are made quickly. The first is called confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values. In one experiment, participants in the study were asked to read a series of scenarios like the following:
“You meet a person and you would like to find out whether he/she is an introvert or extrovert. You guess that the person is an extrovert. Which of the following two questions do you ask?
Do you like spending time at home alone?
Do you like going to parties?”
Many people will chose the second question. That is a sign of confirmation bias. The person is looking for information that agrees with their assumption, rather than looking for evidence that you may be wrong. A person with a decision-making style like Susan’s is more likely to choose the first question, looking for a way to test their assumption.
When facing an important decision, I look at my desired outcome and then seek information that will support my choice. Susan has a tendency to look at her desired outcome and then seek information that will test the decision. Of course, that is a gross oversimplification of how we make decisions and the difference between us, but I think it is accurate to say that I am more prone to confirmation bias than my wife.
The second bias to which I am more susceptible is called correspondence bias. Correspondence bias results in judging a person without fully considering the context of their situation. An example of this is that I have been known to judge harshly someone who struggled with and perhaps dropped out of their educational setting. I will think of that person as less intelligent, when it may be that financial difficulties or family responsibilities may be forced to postpone or end their formal education. Susan is more likely to recognize the other factors and less quick to make a quick judgment about another person.
Researchers used to rely on a standard set of questions called “The Frost Indecisiveness Scale.” The questions on the scale themselves leaned toward both confirmation bias and correspondence bias. The very title of the scale shows that the researchers who developed the scale saw indecisiveness as a negative quality. Contemporary researchers are less likely to use that scale and have come up with several different ways of measuring “trait ambivalence.” They try to look more specifically at the thoughts and feelings that underly a person’s judgment and decision-making. They look for evidence of contradictory thoughts, and ability to see both sides of an issue. They also understand that trait ambulance can be a positive quality. What initially looks like indecisiveness is actually a more measured and careful way of making decisions.
Life, however, doesn’t always give a person with high trait ambivalence time to use their decision making skills. For example, when shopping online for airline tickets, the decision to wait and weigh options almost always results in having a different set of options. The price of an airline ticket changes with the passage of time and with the frequency with which one shops online for the ticket. Often those who are able to make a quick decision are rewarded with a lower price, but not always. Sometimes waiting until the last minute results in finding a better deal. Because of the fickleness of airline ticket pricing, it is a very poor arena to measure the effectiveness of one decision-making style over another.
Law enforcement officers are often faced with the need to make a very quick judgement. As they assess the danger of a situation, they don’t have time to weigh all of the factors. A split second can mean the difference between life and death. The ability to make very quick judgements, however, can result in huge mistakes as has been demonstrated when officers use deadly force in a situation that was later determined to not present a threat.
Health care providers often have to make quick decisions. When a cardiac arrest occurs, there is no time to weigh all of the factors present. A quick response is the only life-saving option. While it is rare, there have been cases of people who had a “do not resuscitate” order in place being given CPR and other life-prolonging treatments.
In my case, I feel very fortunate to have a partner who has a different decision-making style than mine. She helps me to become more aware of my biases and has helped me to avoid the consequences of a hastily-made decision. For us the partnership works.
My wife Susan, on the other hand, is a bit slower to make choices. She likes to consider all of the options and think through all of the potential consequences before choosing. She will sometimes say that she is poor at making decisions, but I don’t observe her that way. She makes very good decisions. It is just that some decisions take more time than others and sometimes she takes more time to reach a conclusion than I do.
Earlier in our relationship this difference between us caused some tension. When we were faced with a major choice, I might come to a quick decision and then advocate for my point of view, while she didn’t want to get into an argument with me, but rather wanted to have more time to make the decision. I would think that I had the right choice, and she would want to check to make sure that it was the right choice. Over the years, we began to refine our skills at making decisions together. I learned a lot of respect for her style of making decisions. She grew in trust of my decision-making process. Now that we have been married for 49 1/2 years, we have arrived at a process that allows both of us to trust the other’s wisdom and way of making choices.
Researchers who study how decision are made point out that there are to biases that are more common when decisions are made quickly. The first is called confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values. In one experiment, participants in the study were asked to read a series of scenarios like the following:
“You meet a person and you would like to find out whether he/she is an introvert or extrovert. You guess that the person is an extrovert. Which of the following two questions do you ask?
Do you like spending time at home alone?
Do you like going to parties?”
Many people will chose the second question. That is a sign of confirmation bias. The person is looking for information that agrees with their assumption, rather than looking for evidence that you may be wrong. A person with a decision-making style like Susan’s is more likely to choose the first question, looking for a way to test their assumption.
When facing an important decision, I look at my desired outcome and then seek information that will support my choice. Susan has a tendency to look at her desired outcome and then seek information that will test the decision. Of course, that is a gross oversimplification of how we make decisions and the difference between us, but I think it is accurate to say that I am more prone to confirmation bias than my wife.
The second bias to which I am more susceptible is called correspondence bias. Correspondence bias results in judging a person without fully considering the context of their situation. An example of this is that I have been known to judge harshly someone who struggled with and perhaps dropped out of their educational setting. I will think of that person as less intelligent, when it may be that financial difficulties or family responsibilities may be forced to postpone or end their formal education. Susan is more likely to recognize the other factors and less quick to make a quick judgment about another person.
Researchers used to rely on a standard set of questions called “The Frost Indecisiveness Scale.” The questions on the scale themselves leaned toward both confirmation bias and correspondence bias. The very title of the scale shows that the researchers who developed the scale saw indecisiveness as a negative quality. Contemporary researchers are less likely to use that scale and have come up with several different ways of measuring “trait ambivalence.” They try to look more specifically at the thoughts and feelings that underly a person’s judgment and decision-making. They look for evidence of contradictory thoughts, and ability to see both sides of an issue. They also understand that trait ambulance can be a positive quality. What initially looks like indecisiveness is actually a more measured and careful way of making decisions.
Life, however, doesn’t always give a person with high trait ambivalence time to use their decision making skills. For example, when shopping online for airline tickets, the decision to wait and weigh options almost always results in having a different set of options. The price of an airline ticket changes with the passage of time and with the frequency with which one shops online for the ticket. Often those who are able to make a quick decision are rewarded with a lower price, but not always. Sometimes waiting until the last minute results in finding a better deal. Because of the fickleness of airline ticket pricing, it is a very poor arena to measure the effectiveness of one decision-making style over another.
Law enforcement officers are often faced with the need to make a very quick judgement. As they assess the danger of a situation, they don’t have time to weigh all of the factors. A split second can mean the difference between life and death. The ability to make very quick judgements, however, can result in huge mistakes as has been demonstrated when officers use deadly force in a situation that was later determined to not present a threat.
Health care providers often have to make quick decisions. When a cardiac arrest occurs, there is no time to weigh all of the factors present. A quick response is the only life-saving option. While it is rare, there have been cases of people who had a “do not resuscitate” order in place being given CPR and other life-prolonging treatments.
In my case, I feel very fortunate to have a partner who has a different decision-making style than mine. She helps me to become more aware of my biases and has helped me to avoid the consequences of a hastily-made decision. For us the partnership works.
