Book Review: How We Decide
Written by Deb Dorchak - July 21, 2011 0 Comments
Have you ever wondered how we make decisions? Is it a rational process? Is it emotional? The two age-old camps are definitely those who use their heads and those who use their hearts. Neither are an exact science, but maybe the whole process of decision making is.
I first learned about Jonah Lehrer’s book How We Decide, on The Colbert Report when Steven Colbert did an interview with Lehrer. The very idea of how we decide made me sit up and pay attention and that someone sat down to explore this question was so fresh I had to find out more.
Lehrer says that our decision making process is a blending of both rational thinking and emotional feelings. It all boils down to knowing how much of each to use in various situations.
Ha! Another decision! Oh the irony…
The book opens as any book should (well, novels anyway): With action. Weren’t expecting that, were you? The author is in an airplane during an emergency situation. He, as the pilot, has to make a lot of decisions with very little time to do it.
Granted, it was only a flight simulator, but it gave Lehrer the opportunity to explore his decision making process up close without any real danger to himself or anyone else.
Through understanding how we make decisions, we can begin to learn how to make better decisions. Always a good thing if you’re a business owner.
One of the most interesting chapters is Fooled By A Feeling. In this chapter, Lehrer tells us about how patients on dopamine agonists (used in treatment for Parkinsons) become addicted to gambling, even if they’ve never previously had the desire to gamble at all.
After reading this, I’ll never view a Las Vegas slot machine in the same way again. Apparently, the dopamine neurons in our brains are geared towards predicting future events. When playing these games, Lehrer says, “…your neurons are struggling to decipher the patterns inside the machine. They want to understand the game, to decode the logic of luck…”
The “Logic of Luck”. Isn’t that what decision making is all about? We want to figure out the future. We want to find the logic and reach the conclusion that’s right for us, but a decision isn’t all logic because in the end, we’re still making our best guess. Kind of like Spock and Kirk trying to figure out what the best course of action is when they had to transport those whales back to the future in Star Trek IV:
Kirk: Mr. Spock, have you accounted for the variable mass of whales and water in your time re-entry program?
Spock: Mr. Scott cannot give me exact figures, Admiral, so… I will make a guess.
Kirk: A guess? You, Spock? That’s extraordinary.
Spock: [to Dr. McCoy] I don’t think he understands.
McCoy: No, Spock. He means that he feels safer about your guesses than most other people’s facts.
Spock: Then you’re saying,
[pause]
Spock: It is a compliment?
McCoy: It is.
Spock: Ah. Then, I will try to make the best guess I can.
If you’re at all interested in learning about what makes us tick, How We Decide is an excellent read. And now, enjoy this clip of the Steven Colbert interview from 2009.
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