Stomach or head? Mom or dad? Do you google something or do you have enough information? Decision-making processes are sometimes very tricky. How best to do it, according to brain researchers.
- Get up or snooze?
- Rolls or muesli? Skirt or pants?
- Smile back or look away ashamed?
We manage most of our everyday decisions without thinking about it, and with impressive success. However, sometimes we face a choice that we are unsure of:
- On vacation to Denmark or Italy?
- New TV or fridge?
- Study or earn money?
In order to make the best possible decision in such cases, we need all the decision-making tools that are available to us. But: what are they actually?
These two tools help us make decisions
As the brain researcher and author Martin Korte explains in his book "Brain Whispering", we have two tools, so to speak, that we can use in decision-making processes:
- Intuition (also known as "gut feeling")
- understanding
Since the two not only work differently, but also have different strengths and weaknesses, let's take a quick look at each of them.
1. Intuition
Neurologists locate our intuition in the same brain area as our habits, the so-called Basal ganglia. From an evolutionary biological point of view, this part of our body's data center is very old and what is happening there is mostly neither conscious nor "linguistic", as Korte writes. Our intuition draws the information that it uses for a decision-making process from our own experience: by including template recognizes that we are familiar from a previous situation. Based on this, she recommends us to decide one way or another. The great strength of intuition: it takes into account insane many parameters with a decision, namely all who caused the model situation. Her weakness: She likes to misjudge the difference between the new, concrete situation and the saved pattern – and of course this can lead to misjudgments … (Since we usually combine experiences with emotions and recall memories about them, our limbic system is also involved in the intuitive decision-making process.)
2. Mind
Korte predominantly orders the mind prefrontal cortex zu, a comparatively young part of our brain that controls conscious thinking and is gifted with languages. Thanks to his language skills, among other things, our minds can play through different options ("what if …") and Clearly recognize relationships such as causality – and ultimately that is also its greatest strength in a decision making process. The weakness of our minds: Using it is extremely strenuous, it does not have a particularly high capacity and can only capture a fraction of the relevant factors – which of course can lead to considerable misjudgments and distorted weightings …
This is how we use our tools optimally
The following usage recommendation results from the description in the package insert for our two decision tools:
- In complex but familiar situations we can have a clear conscience on our intuition leave – especially when we have to make a quick decision. (Examples: road traffic, everyday decisions, prioritization of usual to-dos …)
- In simple, unknown situations is ours understanding the best advisor – especially when we have time to think. (Examples: Investing and buying decisions, when is the right time to start an appointment in a new café? …)
- In complex, new situations, where we usually find it hardest to make decisions and therefore interest us the most, is one Combination of intuition and reason the best variant, ie "thinking about our thinking", as the brain researcher puts it: feeling inside us what feels right, plus deliberately consider why it feels right, what consequences it would have to follow our feelings, what we would feel well if we behaved differently … or as Korte says: "We always have to make it clear what kind of decision it is and which information is essential for this are."
The latter sounds exhausting – and it is. Fortunately, another rule that, according to the neurologist, is indispensable for making wise decisions is very simple (* cough, cough *):
We never have one hundred percent certainty about the consequences if we make a decision, neither with simple problems nor with complex, new or familiar ones. But for this reason, shirking and surrendering to your fate is never the wisest decision – but the stupidest.