If we are satisfied with our result, it will affect our emotional centers in a positive way, and it will reinforce our experience and establish a pattern that will allow us to quickly determine how we will react next time we encounter that situation or a similar one. If we experience regret, it will affect us in a negative way establishing new patterns and experiences that will be considered in the future if the same situation is reached.
As time goes by our experience with any particular situation allows our decision making process to be executed faster and more effectively. This will help us avoid unpleasant situations and favor good ones. Depending on the complexity of the decision you have to make, the more or less time you have to spend analyzing facts and data to come to a decision you will not regret.
Good vs Poor decision making
In general humans are great decision makers. We all want to think that the decisions we make or have made in the past are the best choices we made with the information and experience we had on hand. I personally do not believe that there are people with bad decision skills and good decision skills mainly because those decisions are made based on the tools you have present at the moment. Certain people might decide poorly on certain situations but will make very good choices on others. Many people are more impulsive than others, not taking the time to analyze all the relevant information before executing a final decision. Other times our poor decisions arise from simply analyzing short-term vs long-term consequences of that decision. For instance, purchasing a car that is more expensive than you can afford, or shoplifting at a store. Both cases have a positive short term effect, but a terrible long term one!
The future of decision making: Cognitive Biases
If you were wondering if there is a way to make better decisions the answer is YES! Research has been focused on how we make decisions and the errors we make on a daily basis. One particular area of interest are cognitive biases. This concept was introduced in the 1970’s by three psychologists and defined it as “the tendency to make decisions or take action in an illogical way”. Cognitive biases more often than not, are a result of our brains taking shortcuts in order to reach a decision promptly and get the expected satisfaction. This results in an inaccurate judgment and illogical decisions.
There are over one hundred defined cognitive biases. Bellow us a list of 5 biases that I consider to be the most relevant.
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