Making decisions - Satisficing and the Fear of Better Options
Ideothetic Flow
Hi everyone!
A few years ago, my wife (then girlfriend) and I walked past a tiny sushi shop at Robertson Quay. It had little foot traffic and was hidden in a dim corner. We knew no friends who had been there, and could find no online reviews. A sense of adventure somehow filled us and we followed our gut and gave it a try. This restaurant turned out to become our go-to sushi place (see here). While there might be objectively better sushi elsewhere, and we took quite a great risk for an expensive meal, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and created a lasting memory.
We are increasingly faced with more and more choices and infinite information about those choices. Our minds cannot fully comprehend and analyse all this information to properly make an informed decision. This article discusses two different ways to make decisions - Maximising vs Satisficing . Satisficing is a way of decision making that only requires the option to be "good enough" to meet one's needs. What is interesting is that a "Maximising" approach, which considers all available information and alternatives, does in fact lead to objectively better results. However, by later wondering if a better option was available, those who Maximise end up to be less happy than those who merely Satisfice. This is the fear of better options - FOBO.
When we Maximise, we rely on external cues surrounding a choice -
"Rather than asking themselves if they enjoy their choice, they are more likely to evaluate their choices based on its reputation, social status, and other external cues. In contrast, [a] statisficer asks whether her college choice is excellent and meets her needs, not whether it is really “the best.”
These external cues must be weighed carefully. If we focus on these before ensuring our own needs are met, we are making decisions based on whether others would approve of them. Not only may we be unhappy with the decision, it could be hard to back down and reverse the decision and against such external approval.
I fear that, if we constantly rely on external information to make our decisions, we miss out on new experiences. We go and experience what everyone else has considered to be objectively the best. Yet, it means everyone would have similar experiences and not unique ones. What is "the best" decision may actually only be "the most popular decision". This could merely be the one with the best marketing. We might then miss out on some truly great opportunities have been overlooked by the general crowd.
The New York Times Smarter Living Column which picked up on this study has a solution to this - the Mostly Fine Decision . I think this works when doing something like deciding what to eat or which Netflix show to watch. Yet, for making decisions with greater cost or consequence, I think there must be a better mental model to approach it that balances the greater value from trying to properly evaluate alternatives, without the reduced happiness. Perhaps a topic for a future issue. If you see this conflict in your own decision making, please share with me your experiences, and if what these studies have found are in fact accurate among those around me.
Hope you have a great week ahead!
James
*I had touched on something similar before in an earlier newsletter about distinction biases.
ABOUT
Ideothetic Flow is a fortnightly newsletter where I reflect on insights that I have found useful in rethinking life in a more realistic way.
Modern culture, media, and technology, for all their benefits, have distorted the view of a complete and happy life. The ideas I share are those which have helped me gain a deeper understanding of my own identity and circumstances, and inspire change towards a happier life, and I hope they will do the same for anyone else who reads this.
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