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Choosing your next camera: Logic and emotions
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    Common knowledge holds that thorough conscious thought leads to good
    decisions and satisfactory choices.
    Whether purchasing a new car, a desktop computer, or a pair of shoes, people generally
    believe that serious conscious deliberation increases the probability that they will make the
    right choice. This idea applies especially to choices between products that are complex,
    multifaceted, and expensive. Whereas most people are willing to buy a new set of towels
    without much thought, they are unlikely to buy a new car or outfit a new kitchen without
    deliberation.



    A second pervasive idea is that the quality of a choice benefits from sleeping on it.
    Rather than (or in addition to) thinking consciously, people usually feel that unconscious
    thought is useful for making sound decisions.

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    Ap Dijksterhuis, «On Making the Right Choice: The Deliberation-Without-Attention Effect»
    Read the rest at: http://www.unconsciouslab.com/publications/Dijksterhuis%20Bos%20Nordgren%20Van%20Baaren%20-%20The%20deliberation%20without%20attention%20effect.pdf

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  • sam_sticklandsam_stickland
    Interesting. But since they measured the 'correctness' of the choice being by measuring postchoice satisfaction I think this says more about the nature of regret, and how we might 'beat ourselves up' over a wrong choice than anything else. Perhaps, if you've consciously evaluated criteria for a choice, you are more likely to notice negative reasons why you shouldn't had picked it? I think there's a lot of stuff going on here!

    I wonder what would happen if you repeated this with choices where there was objectively a right or wrong answer (rather than subjective).
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