Chapter 4: Choices and Actions: The Self in Control
WHAT YOU DO, AND WHAT IT MEANS
The importance of ideas
What you do depends partly on what it means.
Reflects the broad theme that inner processes serve interpersonal functions.
Thinking enables people to make use of meaning
Evolved to help creatures make better choices for guiding their behaviour.
One of the most basic uses of thought is to perform actions mentally before doing them physically.
MAKING CHOICES
Progress of culture seems to offer people more & more choices, which must be desirable
because people seem to want more choices.
TWO STEPS OF CHOOSING
1. Reducing the full range of choices down to a limited few.
Involves some risk that a potentially good choice will be rejected without careful
consideration.
Only way that human mind can deal with a large set of possible choices.
2. Careful comparison of the highlighted options
Researchers study how someone chooses among a few major options, instead of
focusing on how someone reduces a large set of choices down to a few.
People perform mental cost-benefit-analysis for each option at the potential good & bad
sides.
Add these up & pick a option that comes out best.
INFLUENCES ON CHOICE
RISK AVERSION People are more affected by possible losses than by
possible gains.
Rational VS irrational bets
Rational bet conform to what expert statistical risk appraisal
would dictate
Irrational behaviour = aimed at avoiding losses more often
than pursuing gains.
TEMPORAL DISCOUNTING What happens right now weighs more heavily than what
might happen in the future.
Most people choose the immediate reward.
THE CERTAINTY EFFECT Some features of a decision involve possibilities & odds,
whereas others are certain..
This tendency to place too much emphasis on definite
outcomes.
KEEPING OPTIONS OPEN Some people prefer to postpone hard decisions & keep
their options open as long as possible.
, WHY PEOPLE DON’T CHOOSE
Forms of decision avoidance:
STATUS QUO BIAS
Simple preference to keep things the way they are instead of changing
o The new one is unknown & might have unforeseen problems.
People often stick with what they have, even when the alternatives might be
better.
OMMISIONS BIAS
Taking whatever course of action that does not require you to do anything.
o Not taking any form of action.
Many people will do nothing
They will do anything that’s the default option
One general theme behind decision avoidance = anticipated regret.
People avoid making choices & taking actions that they fear they will regret later on.
o People anticipate less regret over doing nothing than over something.
They also know status qua better than the alternatives, so there is greater
risk of regret if you decide to change than if you stand pat.
People always pull back from too many choices
o Like to have many options.
Across many different circumstances, there is no general patterns that
having more options leads to more avoidance of decisions.
Having too few choices make people reluctant to choose
o We fail to make a selection from a group of options.
None of the options seems good enough
Hard to tell which one is the best.
REACTIANCE
Common notion of ‘reverse psychology’
People desire to have freedom of choice & therefore have a negative, aversive reaction to
having some of their choices or options taken away by other people or by external forces.
Reactance = negative feelings people have when their freedom is reduced.
Reactance produces 3 main consequences:
a. Makes you want the forbidden option more and / or makes it seems more attractive.
b. Reactance may make you take steps to try to reclaim the lost option, often describe as ‘
reasserting your freedom’
c. You may feel or act aggressively toward the person who has restricted your freedom.
WHAT YOU DO, AND WHAT IT MEANS
The importance of ideas
What you do depends partly on what it means.
Reflects the broad theme that inner processes serve interpersonal functions.
Thinking enables people to make use of meaning
Evolved to help creatures make better choices for guiding their behaviour.
One of the most basic uses of thought is to perform actions mentally before doing them physically.
MAKING CHOICES
Progress of culture seems to offer people more & more choices, which must be desirable
because people seem to want more choices.
TWO STEPS OF CHOOSING
1. Reducing the full range of choices down to a limited few.
Involves some risk that a potentially good choice will be rejected without careful
consideration.
Only way that human mind can deal with a large set of possible choices.
2. Careful comparison of the highlighted options
Researchers study how someone chooses among a few major options, instead of
focusing on how someone reduces a large set of choices down to a few.
People perform mental cost-benefit-analysis for each option at the potential good & bad
sides.
Add these up & pick a option that comes out best.
INFLUENCES ON CHOICE
RISK AVERSION People are more affected by possible losses than by
possible gains.
Rational VS irrational bets
Rational bet conform to what expert statistical risk appraisal
would dictate
Irrational behaviour = aimed at avoiding losses more often
than pursuing gains.
TEMPORAL DISCOUNTING What happens right now weighs more heavily than what
might happen in the future.
Most people choose the immediate reward.
THE CERTAINTY EFFECT Some features of a decision involve possibilities & odds,
whereas others are certain..
This tendency to place too much emphasis on definite
outcomes.
KEEPING OPTIONS OPEN Some people prefer to postpone hard decisions & keep
their options open as long as possible.
, WHY PEOPLE DON’T CHOOSE
Forms of decision avoidance:
STATUS QUO BIAS
Simple preference to keep things the way they are instead of changing
o The new one is unknown & might have unforeseen problems.
People often stick with what they have, even when the alternatives might be
better.
OMMISIONS BIAS
Taking whatever course of action that does not require you to do anything.
o Not taking any form of action.
Many people will do nothing
They will do anything that’s the default option
One general theme behind decision avoidance = anticipated regret.
People avoid making choices & taking actions that they fear they will regret later on.
o People anticipate less regret over doing nothing than over something.
They also know status qua better than the alternatives, so there is greater
risk of regret if you decide to change than if you stand pat.
People always pull back from too many choices
o Like to have many options.
Across many different circumstances, there is no general patterns that
having more options leads to more avoidance of decisions.
Having too few choices make people reluctant to choose
o We fail to make a selection from a group of options.
None of the options seems good enough
Hard to tell which one is the best.
REACTIANCE
Common notion of ‘reverse psychology’
People desire to have freedom of choice & therefore have a negative, aversive reaction to
having some of their choices or options taken away by other people or by external forces.
Reactance = negative feelings people have when their freedom is reduced.
Reactance produces 3 main consequences:
a. Makes you want the forbidden option more and / or makes it seems more attractive.
b. Reactance may make you take steps to try to reclaim the lost option, often describe as ‘
reasserting your freedom’
c. You may feel or act aggressively toward the person who has restricted your freedom.
