1. Seek additional information and request external help from specialized individuals.
2. Emotions have a short duration, so remember that the moments of happiness and/or sadness you feel following a decision will not last forever.
3. Hydrate yourself, get an optimal amount of sleep, and have regular meals so that you are in an appropriate physiological state before making a decision.
4. Remember to explore every decision with openness, as if it were a new one; otherwise, out of habit, you may overlook important aspects.
5. Avoid being in an intensely positive emotional state (e.g., amusement) when making important decisions, as you might underestimate the risks.
6. Avoid being in an intensely negative emotional state (e.g., anger) when making important decisions, as you might overestimate the risks.
7. Take your time and analyze all the options.

Introduction

Every day, an adult makes over 35,000 decisions related to what they will buy, what they will wear, and how they will spend their time, as compared to a child, who is responsible for only about 3,000 decisions (Sahakian & LaBuzetta, 2013). According to Anderer (2019), around 4 out of 10 adults regret life decisions they have made, and of these, 3 out of 4 adults regret the actions they did not take (e.g., not taking better care of their health, not spending more time with friends, not traveling enough). The decision-making process can be overwhelming, and among the most difficult decisions are professional decisions, decisions related to marriage, and decisions regarding investment savings. In a study involving a sample of 7,937 participants, it was found that the more life decisions addressed a healthy lifestyle (e.g., limiting alcohol consumption, avoiding smoking, engaging in physical exercise), the higher the satisfaction with life and the lower the psychological distress (Velten et al., 2014). Therefore, the decisions we make have a strong impact on mental health.

Experts in behavioral economics and cognitive sciences define the ideal decision as one that maximizes utility in both the short and long term (Summerfield & Tsetsos, 2015). In other words, the best decision is one that involves minimal effort and aligns with our present and future goals. The pressure to make the ideal decision can lead to "decidophobia” (eng. decidophobia) or the fear of making the wrong decision (Zhang, 2020). 

Next, we will analyze the factors that shape the outcomes of the decisions we make, specifically: the ways we process information, behavioral decision-making styles, cognitive distortions, and emotions.

How do we process the information needed to make a decision?

Similar to the two systems (i.e., slow thinking and fast thinking) proposed by Kahneman (2011), we can process the options we have in a decision in the following ways:

• Analytical

From this perspective, we make decisions rationally based on an extensive analysis, maximizing the chances of success and minimizing risks. The human brain constructs theories about the relationship between stimuli and triggered emotions every time we experience happiness, sadness, or anger (Lehrer et al., 2010), showing that we make decisions based on a long process of learning from past experiences. The most well-known decision-making strategy involves the following steps: 1. Identifying the problem; 2. Generating alternatives; 3. Evaluating alternatives; 4. Choosing the alternative 5. Implementing the decision; 6. Evaluating the effectiveness of the decision (Schoenfeld, 2011). However, while well-structured, this method has limitations, such as the inability to always fully understand the problem and the generation of a limited number of alternatives. Thus, analytical processing provides a complex and extensive framework for information analysis, but it can sometimes be limiting.

• Automatic

From this perspective, we prefer predictability and decisions with certain outcomes. We prefer immediate rewards over delayed ones, even when the latter may be more advantageous, indicating an aversion to risk (Wittmann & Paulus, 2008). Over time, fast thinking, even when irrational, has been adaptive because it ensured survival in situations where extensive analysis of alternatives could have been fatal (i.e., fight-or-flight decisions). 

Therefore, we can process decisions in a logical, rational manner, but also in a fast, automatic way. Although the two styles of processing are different, they are not inherently good or bad. Decisions become appropriate when the processing we rely on (analytical or automatic) aligns with our goals. Furthermore, it is important to be aware of how behavioral styles, cognitive distortions, and emotions influence our decision-making process.

What are the behavioral decision-making styles? 

At the behavioral level, the most important decision-making styles are (Gambetti et al., 2008; Del Campo et al., 2016):

• Rational, characterized by the systematic search for relevant information 
• Intuitive, characterized by actions based on intuition and emotions
• Dependent, characterized by seeking advice and external help
• Avoidant, characterized by procrastination and making decisions at the last moment
• Spontaneous, characterized by impulsive actions

Decision-making styles mediate the relationship between personality and financial investments (Gambetti & Giusberti, 2019). Moreover, the rational and dependent styles predict the intention to invest savings, while the avoidant style is associated with the intention to avoid investing savings (Gambetti & Giusberti, 2019). Therefore, the rational and dependent styles are associated with positive financial outcomes.

How do cognitive distortions affect decisions?

Among the most important cognitive distortions that influence our decisions are:

• Impact bias or the tendency to overestimate the impact of an event in terms of both intensity and duration.
• Projection bias or the tendency to make decisions in certain physiological states that may lead to regret later. A thirsty person will buy a larger quantity of water. This is explained by the fact that analytical decisions are made when basic needs are met.
• Recall bias 3.or the tendency to make decisions based on previous experiences.

How do emotions affect decisions?

Automatic decisions are influenced by emotions such as:

• Sadness, compared to amusement, is associated with a lower acceptance of unfair offers in the famous game. The Ultimatum Game, in which participants accept or reject offers that are more or less fair (Harlé & Sanfey, 2007). This result is also observed in a recent study where company managers made more effective decisions when they were sad compared to managers who were happy under time-limited conditions. (Treffers et al., 2020). Therefore, sadness is a functional emotion as it guides cognitive change by reconstructing goals when people face various losses (Karnaze & Levine, 2018).
• Anger which is associated with an overestimation of gains and an underestimation of losses, leading to greater risk-taking behaviors (Yang et al., 2018).
• Fear of guilt which is associated with a greater need to gather information, less time to analyze possible options, and lower satisfaction with the decision made (Chiang & Purdon, 2019).

Conclusion: 

It is essential to be aware of how we process information, our behavioral decision-making styles, cognitive biases, and emotions, as these factors can influence whether our decisions lead to favorable outcomes based on our short- and long-term goals.

References:

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Chiang, B., & Purdon, C. (2019). Have I done enough to avoid blame? Fear of guilt evokes OCD-like indecisiveness. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 20, 13-20.

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