Do You Suffer from Decision Fatigue?

[Guest fountainhall]

Here’s a new one on me – decision fatigue. A description is best left to the New York Times which has a lengthy story in its last Magazine section, because I become fatigued just reading it!! It does, though, have quite momentous and serious implications. Here’s a longish excerpt from the 7-page internet article –

 

Three men doing time in Israeli prisons recently appeared before a parole board consisting of a judge, a criminologist and a social worker. The three prisoners had completed at least two-thirds of their sentences, but the parole board granted freedom to only one of them. Guess which one:

 

Case 1 (heard at 8:50 a.m.):

An Arab Israeli serving a 30-month sentence for fraud.

 

Case 2 (heard at 3:10 p.m.):

A Jewish Israeli serving a 16-month sentence for assault.

 

Case 3 (heard at 4:25 p.m.):

An Arab Israeli serving a 30-month sentence for fraud.

 

There was a pattern to the parole board’s decisions, but it wasn’t related to the men’s ethnic backgrounds, crimes or sentences. It was all about timing, as researchers discovered by analyzing more than 1,100 decisions over the course of a year. Judges, who would hear the prisoners’ appeals and then get advice from the other members of the board, approved parole in about a third of the cases, but the probability of being paroled fluctuated wildly throughout the day. Prisoners who appeared early in the morning received parole about 70 percent of the time, while those who appeared late in the day were paroled less than 10 percent of the time.

 

The odds favored the prisoner who appeared at 8:50 a.m. — and he did in fact receive parole. But even though the other Arab Israeli prisoner was serving the same sentence for the same crime — fraud — the odds were against him when he appeared (on a different day) at 4:25 in the afternoon. He was denied parole, as was the Jewish Israeli prisoner at 3:10 p.m, whose sentence was shorter than that of the man who was released. They were just asking for parole at the wrong time of day.

 

There was nothing malicious or even unusual about the judges’ behavior, which was reported earlier this year by Jonathan Levav of Stanford and Shai Danziger of Ben-Gurion University. The judges’ erratic judgment was due to the occupational hazard of being, as George W. Bush once put it, “the decider.” The mental work of ruling on case after case, whatever the individual merits, wore them down. This sort of decision fatigue can make quarterbacks prone to dubious choices late in the game and C.F.O.’s prone to disastrous dalliances late in the evening. It routinely warps the judgment of everyone, executive and nonexecutive, rich and poor — in fact, it can take a special toll on the poor. Yet few people are even aware of it, and researchers are only beginning to understand why it happens and how to counteract it.

 

Decision fatigue helps explain why ordinarily sensible people get angry at colleagues and families, splurge on clothes, buy junk food at the supermarket and can’t resist the dealer’s offer to rustproof their new car. No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price. It’s different from ordinary physical fatigue — you’re not consciously aware of being tired — but you’re low on mental energy. The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts, usually in either of two very different ways. One shortcut is to become reckless: to act impulsively instead of expending the energy to first think through the consequences. (Sure, tweet that photo! What could go wrong?) The other shortcut is the ultimate energy saver: do nothing. Instead of agonizing over decisions, avoid any choice. Ducking a decision often creates bigger problems in the long run, but for the moment, it eases the mental strain. You start to resist any change, any potentially risky move — like releasing a prisoner who might commit a crime. So the fatigued judge on a parole board takes the easy way out, and the prisoner keeps doing time . . .

 

“Good decision making is not a trait of the person, in the sense that it’s always there,” Baumeister says (Roy F. Baumeister – author of Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength). “It’s a state that fluctuates.” His studies show that people with the best self-control are the ones who structure their lives so as to conserve willpower. They don’t schedule endless back-to-back meetings. They avoid temptations like all-you-can-eat buffets, and they establish habits that eliminate the mental effort of making choices. Instead of deciding every morning whether or not to force themselves to exercise, they set up regular appointments to work out with a friend. Instead of counting on willpower to remain robust all day, they conserve it so that it’s available for emergencies and important decisions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html?_r=1&hpw

 

So which are you? Do you become reckless? Or do you just duck making decisions?

[Guest]

I'm unsure how to answer that one .

 

Actually, I do tend to spend so much time dithering over certain decisions that the value of the time wasted dwarfs the value of the decision. I'm trying to avoid this kind of time wasting.

[Rogie]

I'm definitely reckless from time to time and I'd say that was probably owing to impatience, because I do get impatient pretty easily in some situations, such as driving a car, but I guess it might be hard to distinguish between that and "acting impulsively instead of expending the energy to first think through the consequences" as per the quote. If I did that then I wouldn't make that risky overtaking manoevre or step on the gas because I think the speed limit isn't appropriate (and thinking to myself anyway it's me driving and I reserve the right to decide that sort of thing myself), so if I get a ticket that's a risk I've subconsciously factored in, but if I 'expended some energy' maybe I'd slow down or take a deep breath and resign myself to following that slowcoach in front! So I suppose by not overtaking and not speeding I am by default 'doing nothing' or 'ducking a decision' - just driving on autopilot. I have to agree, again using the driving analogy, that driving when tired is going to increase the risks (eg, slower reaction times), certainly with me. I know when I'm getting weary, and I'd like to think it acts as a kind of feedback, so I adjust my driving accordingly and by cutting out avoidable risks (speeding, overtaking etc) hopefully that balances out the other risk elements.

[Guest fountainhall]

I find there's no doubt that I am slowing down a bit with age. Like z909, I seem to be a ditherer by nature. But then the jobs I have done have often required instant decisions, particularly when there is a crisis. And these I am usually able to handle instantly - but that's a result of experience more than anything. It's when there have been other, often major, crises demanding decisions, but not immediate ones, that I seem to sit around and ponder for days before zeroing in on what I will do.

 

Away from work, I also find even sometimes simple decisions more difficult. Will I go to swim today? No. Maybe I should. OK I'll go. But perhaps the pool will be busy? Can I really be bothered? Goodness knows why life should be so complicated!

[Rogie]

Away from work, I also find even sometimes simple decisions more difficult. Will I go to swim today? No. Maybe I should. OK I'll go. But perhaps the pool will be busy? Can I really be bothered? Goodness knows why life should be so complicated!

That's a good example. I used to love my weekly swimming class where a wonderful woman coached our group of 5 or 6 to improve our swimming technique and as a consequence, our enjoyment. Then I stopped abruptly. Can I get back into the swim of things? Not on your nelly! There always seems to be a stumbling block, but I know if I was really determined it would happen.

 

That great expresssion Procrastination is the thief of time, comes to mind.

 

“Procrastination is the thief of time: Year after year it steals, till all are fled, And to the mercies of a moment leaves The vast concerns of an eternal scene”

Here is the background to this:

 

The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, better known simply as Night-Thoughts, is a long poem by Edward Young published in nine parts (or "nights") between 1742 and 1745.

 

The poem is written in blank verse. It describes the poet's musings on death over a series of nine "nights" in which he ponders the loss of his wife and friends, and laments human frailties. The best-known line in the poem is the adage "procrastination is the thief of time", which is part of a passage in which the poet discusses how quickly life and opportunities can slip away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Thoughts_(poem)

 

I also spotted another quote from Young, I'm not sure if it also comes from Night-Thoughts:

 

“At thirty man suspects himself a fool; Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan; At fifty chides his infamous delay, Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve; In all the magnanimity of thought Resolves; and re-resolves; then dies the same”

[ChristianPFC]

Definitely! When I go to gogo bars, I note down numbers of boys which are my type, but which I don't want to take now for various reasons, in order to come back later the same holiday or to know for my next holiday which bar has the highest number of cute boys. Unfortunately, by then many of then work somewhere else.

 

Many other areas of life where I find it difficult to come to a decision, usually I'm overwhelmed by choice. For example buying toilet paper. There is an entire aile in the supermarked with dozens of different brands of toilet paper. The only way out is to buy the cheapest.

 

Recently I bought a WLan card (10 EUR, about 420 THB) for my laptop on ebay, it took me weeks to come to a decision and I sped probably two hours spread over many days until I finally settled for a model because there is an overwhelming choice and I have no previous experience with WLan.

 

Fortunately, I have no problems what to wear for the day or ight. I just grab into my cupboard and take what's on top. This seems to be a favorite problem for women: cupboards full of clothes and yet nothing to wear.

[Guest fountainhall]

Fortunately, I have no problems what to wear for the day or ight. I just grab into my cupboard and take what's on top.

Very interesting point. I hadn't thought about clothes and the choices we have to make. How many of us have far too many clothes, I wonder? I know I have. Not because I am anything close to a fashionista - the exact opposite is more true - but because I live in the vain belief that I will one day get back to the waistline I was 10 years ago and so fit those many pairs of jeans, trousers, shirts and sweaters (for travelling) I have been keeping for that very purpose! I now wear polo shirts and jeans most of the time, the jeans being so threadbare they are, I suppose, almost fashionable.

 

In the 1970s, I loved the bright 'kipper' ties that were then very popular. I must have had about 36, and when they went out of fashion I kept them as I was sure they'd come back. Ten years ago, I finally threw them out!

 

I once heard somewhere that anything not worn for 3 years should be thrown out or given to a charity shop. If I followed that rule, I reckon I could free up well over half the space!

[Guest]

I also don't care much about fashion and have way too many clothes. This is mainly due to a combination of frequently buying anything I like and a complete refusal to throw anything out until it's worn out. This includes items which get worn about once a decade.

 

Also there's the purchase of lightweight clothing for trips abroad. Then when ultra lightweight items in mosquito repellent fabric are on special offer, that's another

purchase.