Over-thinking a problem could lead to expensive mistakes. That's the theory put forth by a recent study covered in New Scientist, which suggests that our conscious minds should be trusted only with life's simple decisions, like which outfit to buy. The bigger decisions, like buying a car or a house should be left to the unconscious mind rather than weighed out in pros and cons say researchers. "Sleeping on it" is more likely to produce a result with which you remain happy.
Thinking hard about complex issues can "bamboozle" the conscious mind into considering only a portion of the information, which then gets too much weight in consideration and results in an unsatisfactory decision.
In contrast, the unconscious mind appears able to ponder over all the information and produce a decision that most people remain satisfied with in the long run.
A team at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands recruited 80 people for a series of lab-based and "real-world" tests. Participants were given information and asked to make decisions about purchases ranging from shampoos to furniture to cars.
In one of the tests, half of the participants were asked to ponder on the information they were given and then decide which among similar products to buy. The other half were shown the information but then made to perform a series of puzzles including anagrams and simple arithmetic. At the end of the puzzle session, the participants were asked to make a snap decision about the products.
"We found that when the choice was for something simple, such as purchasing oven gloves or shampoo, people made better decisions - ones that they remained happy with - if they consciously deliberated over the information," the lead researcher told New Scientist. "But once the decision was more complex such as for a house, too much thinking about it led people to make the wrong choice. Whereas, if their conscious mind was fully occupied on solving puzzles, their unconscious could freely consider all the information and they reached better decisions."
All of this said, the unconscious mind does appear to require some instruction. It was only when people were told that they'd need to come up with answers to the questions before beginning the puzzles that they were able to come up with the best answers. If they were told that none of what they had been shown was important before being presented with the puzzles, participants failed to make satisfactory choices.
So, like everything, balance is required.
One option that seems to make the most sense when making a big decision is to weigh the pros and cons and write down your needs in comparison your options, then let it go for a bit. The correct decision should come to you. In closing, the lead researcher told New Scientist "at some point in our evolution, we started to make decisions consciously, and we're not very good at it. We should learn to let our unconscious handle the complicated things."
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