Tags
choices, decisions, indecisions, judgements, life changing, logic vs intuition, psychology, unconcious bias
From deciding what to wear and have for breakfast until when to go to bed at night, all day long we are bombarded with decisions that we need to make. Should I stick with healthy porridge or go for yummy chocolate spread on toast and should I pick my sensible flats or the funky boots that aren’t weather proof. So while I felt crippled with the indecision which tea to drink – should I go fruity or detox or maybe licorice is what I wanted, or maybe mint – I couldn’t help but wonder about the decisions we make and why we make them.
It seems that our intuition and our logic are locked in a constant battle between what we should be doing and what we want to be doing. So while one part of our brains is trying to analyses and sort through potential consequences the other part is jumping up and down shouting ‘we want it now’.
So while it may seem that we should be giving into logic most of the time we make our decisions based on what our intuition says. The reason for this is the simple fact that our intuitive mind is much faster, easier to accessed and often just overrides our sluggish logical mind.
But even when we think we are being logical and analytical our thinking is actually riddled with unconscious bias. Unconscious biases are all those judgements we are unaware of making when confronted with situations and people. These judgements are generally based on individual backgrounds, educations, cultural environment and experiences but are triggered by the brain without us realizing it.
So where does that leave us – do we just give in to our ‘gut feeling’ or do we hope our unconscious bias isn’t sabotaging us?
Maybe the trick lies in the balance. If the choice of breakfast in the morning won’t change the rest of your life, maybe just stick with what you think is best but if the decision you are about to make may have long lasting effects maybe think about it. And sometimes, maybe, indecision forces you to look at why you want to decided one way and force you to take a closer look at your own unconscious bias.
which to pick – maybe not important but a choice I have to make
jensinewall 