Making Decisions Depletes Your Decision Making!

It's all about overdoing something.  Apparently, we can overdo our ability to make sound decisions by having made too many beforehand -- like decision fatigue!

In a The New York Times magazine article (To Choose is To Lose, August 21, 2011 - online version readable here), John Tierney presents compelling studies that show we compromise our ability to make sound decisions if we have exhausted our decision making 'currency' with prior decisions.

1. When decisions are made at different parts of the day, the decisions vary because of the energy level of the decision maker -- some of us are morning persons and others are night persons, etc. 
2. At certain parts of the day, we suffer decision fatigue when making the same types of decisions over and over again (repetitive types) – such as reviewing proposals, evaluating applications, and deciding on parole of inmates.  Before a meal (with energy lagging) can be a poor time for decision making.
3. Decision fatigue is an occupational hazard, such as for people working behind a customer counter (license bureaus, bank tellers).  The fatigue often results in irritability as well.
4. It can happen to football quarterbacks at the end of a stress-filled game, where poor decisions are made.
5. No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you cannot make decision after decision without paying a biological price.  This is different from physical fatigue because you are not consciously aware of being tired, but are low in mental energy.
6. When mentally fatigued, the brain looks for shortcuts, e.g., to do nothing or become reckless or act impulsively instead of thinking through the consequences. 

Experiments also demonstrate there is a finite store of mental energy for exerting self-control.  Consequently, willpower, a form of mental energy, could be exhausted. Decision fatigue can be episodic or chronic.  Here are some examples:

• In the case of the parole board, rather than consider the merits for parole, a tired board would rather not deliberate and does nothing and does not consider parole, to the dismay of the candidate.
• Living for the poor is a constant struggle against trade-offs.  They have to decide moment by moment what they must buy, what they must forego, and what they can afford.  This constant (chronic) need to make decisions creates fatigue.  It is suggested that this fatigue is a major factor in trapping people in poverty.  There is less will power to consider looking for a job, to get training, or to make other life decisions beyond surviving another day.

What is the cause of the decision fatigue?  Is it just the repetition -- psychological or physiological?

Numerous experiments have been performed to see what would restore willpower after depletion. Study in both humans and animals show that glucose is the ingredient that restores willpower!  This was strongly proven by brain activity scans with subjects depleted of energy and willpower and those not depleted.  The studies showed that when glucose was administered, the brain scans show renewed activity in the brain regions that coincided with renewed willpower.

This finding is challenging for those on diets.  When you deprive yourself of high sugar foods, your willpower drops and by late in the day your body craves sugar to replenish your fuel.  A nutritional catch-22.

Moral:  Do not be hungry before making a decision when glucose levels are reduced.  Have a snack or eat before making critical decisions, i.e, do not make those decisions just before lunch or before dinner!

© Baldwin H. Tom CMC
www.tbgroupconsultants.com