Decision Making And How We Actually Make Decisions

Decision-making —  how do we actually do it? Most perceive it as an exercise in analyzing and logically approaching problems, and in some respects, that is true. However, the fact is, there is a lot of science behind the process we go through.

For many in business, it has been thought that marketing your product was a psychological game, and as such, for many years people marketed their products based upon the selling of an idea. Just give ’em more information and they will eventually buy, right?

What we have found out, however, is that people do not make their decisions based upon what they know. In fact, if you give them too much information, they won’t be able to make a decision and your sale will fail because the buyer will go into “choice paralysis” and not be confident about their decision. 

What is choice paralysis?

Have you ever been shopping in a store only to approach a sample table and on that table is a sample of jellies? There’s a very definite scientific methodology about the way that they display these jellies. Notice they never give you a choice of more than three or four if they want you to actually choose your favourite. This is because, over the number of three, the typical human will have “Choice Paralysis”

Also known as over choice, choice paralysis, or the paradox of choice describes how people get overwhelmed when they are presented with a large number of options to choose from. While we tend to assume that more choice is a good thing, in many cases, research has shown that we have a harder time choosing from a larger array of options.

So decision making works how, again?

It’s important to understand that all decisions involve emotions. In fact, every decision that you make is about your emotions. You can use certain words to make people feel confident within their decisions, however, it will always boil down to emotions.  In this way, it’s a bad idea to provide more than four options to choose from with anything that you do.

Decisions are not made from an informational or rational point of view.

We’d like to think that we are rational and logical animals and that when we make a decision we carefully weigh all the options. However, research has shown that the truth behind it all is actually counterintuitive. There are literally hundreds of decisions that we make every day, and while the information that we possess does influence those decisions, 100% of those decisions are based upon the feeling that we get from the knowledge that we understand and how that understanding makes us feel a certain way.

Most of our decision-making is unconscious.

Neurological research shows that activity while making a decision, researchers were able to predict what choice people make 7 to 10 seconds before they themselves are even aware of having made a decision. STUDY SOURCE: Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain. Nature neuroscience.

“Do you write your messaging and content to appeal to logical thinking? If so, it’s possible and even probable that your logical, persuasive arguments to your target audience about why they should go with the premium service or why they should purchase a particular product may be in vain.” ~ Susan Weinschenk, Ph. D.

Is there ever a time that our decision-making is making “rational decisions”?

The short answer is no. If you can’t feel emotions, then you can’t make decisions. This is largely thanks to our Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex… we’ll just call it the “VPC” for now, but science calls it the vmPFC.

Essentially, in the front of your brain lies the prefrontal cortex and within that is the VPC. It’s important in regulating fear, while other parts of your brain — specifically the amygdala — tells you when you should be afraid and what you should be afraid of. So if you’ve ever heard the term “fight or flight” that is a direct reference to the functions of your amygdala. 

This is all within the limbic system, a collection of regions of the brain that specifically regulate emotions. And people decide when they feel varying emotions. They buy when they feel confident and do not buy when they don’t.

The science behind decision making.

According to researchers, there is a neuron that fires in the brain that triggers people to take action. Then the brain decides whether it is a confident action or not. This subjectivity is not based on the amount of information you have, it is based on a feeling you have… in this case, “confidence” or “no confidence”.

So, in business sales, if you want people to take positive action and buy what you are selling, you must be able to make them feel confident.

So is the information you know weighing heavier in the influence of a decision?

The answer is yes. In business sales, there’s an old adage that says only give more information to people if they’re making a goal-based decision. And while all decisions are made from our emotions, there are surely different levels that this takes place. 

As an example, some decisions are made in the Orbital Frontal Cortex or OFC, so during the times that you are looking for solving a goal-based decision or value-based decisions, your heavy emotional decision making has mostly been done; all you were deciding upon now some of the more habitual details e.g. you like white better than black, or foods with less salt, etc. 

So in closing…

People liked having more choices to choose from but they were more satisfied with their choice when there was less to choose from. Silly humans, let’s have a chat.

---