It seems logical to think that to make a good decision it is important to be well informed about a topic and handle as much data as possible. However, a recent 2023 study reaches a surprising and counterintuitive conclusion: when it comes to decisions, less is more. That is, decisions get worse the more additional information is handled.
Every day we are faced with making decisions from the moment we get up until we go to bed, a task that, even in unimportant matters, is sometimes difficult. Do I have toast for breakfast, which I fancy, or fruit, which is healthier? What should I wear, what should I wear or will it be hot? These types of questions are generally easy to solve, but the difficulty increases when it comes to important topics such as those related to health, the economy or personal relationships.
The study published in the journal Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications titled Less is more: information needs, information wants, and what makes causal models useful ), concludes that the key to making better decisions is to simplify, since most people make worse choices when they consider too much additional information.
In the work, its authors Samantha Kleinberg and Jessecae K. Marsh use causal models for decision making. They consist of simple diagrams that show the relationships between the variables involved in a problem.
A simple example would be making decisions about nutrition, in which we would take into account things such as exercise, diet or each person’s metabolism. With a causal model we could assume the consequences that a certain decision would have (exercise for example) or explain the effects (I have gained weight because I have been very sedentary lately).
The main premise that explains the result of this study is that handling a lot of information diverts attention from what is really important: “Including a small amount of information beyond that related to the target response has a detrimental effect,” the work concludes.
And many times handling too much information turns the decision exercise into something much more complex on a cognitive level. This was demonstrated in the experiments they carried out for the study in which participants could choose between using a simple model, a complex one, or models without information. After a series of questions about decisions related to topics such as health or family finances, those who used simple models obtained better scores than those who chose complex models or none.
Thus, the study determines that “simple and specific information continues to lead to the best decisions, while participants who believe they do not need information or seek the most complex information obtain worse results.” On the other hand, another conclusion that the researchers reached is that participants who based their decisions on simplified diagrams were more satisfied with their answers.
But simplification is not an easy task. How do you know what information is important to decide? The study also found that choosing a model and selecting what information is needed to reach a good conclusion was something that not all participants knew how to do.
In this sense, the psychologist specializing in Brief Strategic Therapy, Alicia García Aguilar, assured La Vanguardia that “the difficulty of this model is precisely in reducing because what people often fail to do is simplify.”
“The problem I see with this solution is that it is excessively logical-rational and normally what dominates our decision-making system are fears, which belong to the realm of emotions,” explains the psychologist, who insists that “ “There are precisely many people who have problems, even psychological and pathological, to reduce or simplify.”
Thus, simplifying is both the problem and the solution, since it is a proven good way to make good decisions but at the same time, something complex to achieve. “If there is no pathology, of course reducing options helps to decide” but not everyone can do it.
The Less is More study points out that each causal model of decision making, both simple and complex, has its advantages and disadvantages.
Simple diagrams, which are proven to be the best for making good decisions, are easier to use and understand because they handle less information and focus on what is essential, but there is a risk of leaving out relevant data or being too much. generic for certain types of decisions.
For their part, complex models are more difficult to understand and apply, they can generate confusion when handling a large amount of information, they can lead to the distraction of what is important in a tangle of data and even involve cognitive overload, but in exchange they are more complete and accurate.
Simple things can be complex and not everyone is capable of applying a causal model based on simplification. In this sense, Alicia García tells this newspaper that “as long as the person manages to reduce the options in a logically rational way and allows them to decide, perfect, but if not, precisely what they have is to put aside that way of solving the problem.” question and look for another way” because according to her, sometimes rationality can lead to increasing doubts and “the more you become anxious and the more you want to control the possibilities.”
“Simplifying does not free you from your fears, your insecurity, your obsessions, your fear of the judgment of others, and in the end that has more weight than other things” when deciding. And this especially affects people with fear of disapproval, those who are very perfectionist and fear making mistakes, those who need to control everything and of course those who have pathologies such as paranoid fear of everything going wrong, explains the psychologist.
As Ortega y Gasset said, “we are condemned to choose, we are obliged to be free,” and that freedom is sometimes difficult to exercise for many.
