I talk a lot about self-delusion. My purpose in hammering on this concept is
that we (all of us) truly underestimate just how powerful and unconscious self-delusion
is. What makes this so insidious is that
our thought processes have at least some aspect of delusion almost all the
time, in everything we do. But we don’t
realize it, so we think we are being reasonably rational and thorough.
My favorite example is what I refer to as reverse decision
making. When faced with a decision, our
preferred choice pops into our minds.
Why not? We want to at least consider this option, don’t we?
But that is where the “reverse” part happens. Most decisions have way too much information
available for us to consider all of it.
So which attributes do we consider? The presence of our preferred choice
in our mind nudges our attention towards the attributes for which our preferred
choice has an advantage – whether or not these are really the most
important.
So our decision making process can feel very thorough –
considering many attributes. But since
we considered the ones where our preferred choice is strong, guess what happens? Our preferred choice wins! That is why I call
it “reverse”. We start with the answer
and that influences the process just enough so that the answer seems rationally
determined.
For simple decisions, a similar process occurs. In this
case, we simply don’t feel obligated to put much concentrated attention into
the decision because it is so simple (or so trivial). So again, our preferred answer is our
starting point and the attributes we consider are the ones where this option is
strongest. We don’t notice it with simple decisions because we aren’t paying attention
to the process.
If you think you are immune, think again. Study after study show that even for people
who are 100% positive they don’t do this, they actually do. Much of the time. And they don’t realize it, even while it is
happening. Much of what happens in our brains is not consciously accessible. Do you sense the signal that your brain is
sending to your heart, reminding it to beat? It is largely the same thing. We just don’t like to admit it when it comes
to decision making.
There is evidence that this is innate. Children ages 5-7
have been studied extensively and they are all full of these reverse decision
making processes.
There is some evidence that one category of people who do
this less are the autistic. The reasons are complex and just being discovered
now. So I will have to report back when
the results are more clear. Otherwise, I
might be reporting the reasons I hope to be true – some reverse thinking of my
own.
