Programmed and Unprogrammed Decision Making

We dominate this planet today because of our distinctive capacity for good decision making. Reid Hastie and Robyn M. Dawes, Rational Choice in an Uncertain World

For nearly five years, I commuted a little over 50 miles each way to work. There were many times where I would remember leaving and arriving with little memory of anything that I passed in between. This fact is highlighted very well the night I had a flat tire in route home. Where I live is rather rural and there are long stretches of wooded areas between exits with few recognizable landmarks. When I found myself with a flat tire, I was in a pickle because I was unable to determine my location along the highway. I couldn't remember what exits I had passed or how long I had been driving. I got into the routine mode of driving home and zoned out the conscious awareness of my route along the way. Shockingly, my best estimates of my location were nearly 15 miles off.

What I found most interesting about automatic decisions is the idea that they do indeed involve a significant amount of thinking (Hastie & Dawes, 2010). It is a common perception that automatic decisions are brain-off moments. However, Hastie & Dawes (2010) points out that many automatic decisions involve a great deal of thought. The idea that complicated tasks, such as driving, can become programmed instinctively so that they can be accomplished almost subconsciously is a deep realization. If you think about this in context of my driving story, my subconscious mind which was making all automatic decisions was much more aware and capable of navigating than my conscious mind after the thinking became controlled.

Have you had any similar experiences?

Think of all the decisions, both large and small, that you make during the course of a regular day. How many of these decisions do you make automatically? How many require more conscious thought processes?

Many decisions people make are programmed and require little thought. One may question whether these decisions are rational. Consider the insights you gained reading this weeks resource regarding programmed and controlled thought processes, as well as the four criteria for rational choice. How does rational choice play into both automatic and controlled decision-making processes?

A key concept in decision making is rational choice. It is defined as one meeting the four criteria:

1. It is based on the decision makers resources (including state of mind, emotions, etc) 2. It is based on the possible consequences of the choice 3. In uncertainty, the likelihood of the consequences is evaluated (according to the basic rules of probability theory) 4. It is based on the constraints of each option and the utility of its consequence