In a nutshell, researcher’s have shown that if you have a complex decision to make – like, for example, buying a house – it’s often best to not overthink the decision and trust your unconcious mind. They’ve found that when there are relatively few factors to use in decision making, the concious rational mind does a good job of making the best decision. But when their are numerous factors to consider, the concious mind gets bogged down and can’t integrate all of the data successfully.
It fits in well with the philosophy of Blink, for those of you who may have read it. If you haven’t, I highly recommend it.
Here’s an Overthinking Article from the Boston Globe summarizing the research study.
The article was published in the journal Science. If you want to read the study, it’ll cost you $10 for a 24 hour visit to their site. Here is the link to thehttp://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/311/5763/1005
“On Making the Right Choice: The Deliberation-Without-Attention Effect
Ap Dijksterhuis,* Maarten W. Bos, Loran F. Nordgren, Rick B. van Baaren
Contrary to conventional wisdom, it is not always advantageous to engage in thorough conscious deliberation before choosing. On the basis of recent insights into the characteristics of conscious and unconscious thought, we tested the hypothesis that simple choices (such as between different towels or different sets of oven mitts) indeed produce better results after conscious thought, but that choices in complex matters (such as between different houses or different cars) should be left to unconscious thought. Named the “deliberation-without-attention” hypothesis, it was confirmed in four studies on consumer choice, both in the laboratory as well as among actual shoppers, that purchases of complex products were viewed more favorably when decisions had been made in the absence of attentive deliberation.”
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