kebes's Journal: Study finds that unconscious makes good decisions

This is a story submission that I made yesterday (that was rejected). Here's the summary:

According to an article published today in Science Magazine, overthinking important decisions is counter-productive. The study found that for unimportant decisions (such as buying shampoo), deliberation would yield useful results (people pick the best product), whereas for more complex and expensive decisions (such as buying furniture or a car), deliberation would tend to decrease the likelihood of picking the optimal product. From the Science Magazine news report: 'as the decisions become complex (more expensive items with many characteristics, such as cars), better decisions and happier ones come from not attending to the choices but allowing one's unconscious to sift through the many permutations for the optimal combination.'



More information on the research:

There is also news coverage of this study on Reuters and WebMD.

The actual Science paper citation is: Ap Dijksterhuis, Maarten W. Bos, Loran F. Nordgren, Rick B. van Baaren "On Making the Right Choice: The Deliberation-Without-Attention Effect" Science 17 February 2006: Vol. 311. no. 5763, pp. 1005 - 1007 (for those with subscriptions: DOI 10.1126/science.1121629). The abstract from the actual paper says:

Contrary to conventional wisdom, it is not always advantageous to engage in thorough conscious deliberation before choosing. On the basis of recent insights into the characteristics of conscious and unconscious thought, we tested the hypothesis that simple choices (such as between different towels or different sets of oven mitts) indeed produce better results after conscious thought, but that choices in complex matters (such as between different houses or different cars) should be left to unconscious thought. Named the ''deliberation-without-attention'' hypothesis, it was confirmed in four studies on consumer choice, both in the laboratory as well as among actual shoppers, that purchases of complex products were viewed more favorably when decisions had been made in the absence of attentive deliberation.

I find the result of this study very interesting. Anecdotally, I'm sure many of us have had the experience of trying to make a difficult decision, and going in circles: reconsidering the same data over and over again. Ultimately, I often just "make a choice!" and interestingly, this choice often turns out to be a good one. This study suggests that we should follow our instincts even more often. It's also possible that people would suffer from Buyer's remorse less intensely if they spent less time worrying about their purchases (both because their purchases were, on average, more optimal, and because they would not have stressed-out over the purchase in the first place quite so much).


Edit: Looks like someone else submitted the same news item.