\u201cPeople are generally quite bad at perceiving and using probability information,\u201d says Katherine Fox-Glassman<\/a>, a psychology professor at Columbia University who studies decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur brains are really well suited to so many things \u2014 understanding uncertainty is not one of those things for most people,\u201d Fox-Glassman tells me. \u201cPeople misinterpret, distort, ignore, and misuse probability in dozens of well-documented ways.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fox-Glassman\u2019s students often tell her they\u2019re excited to take her class because they want to learn to make better decisions. By the time the semester ends, they tend to report that they didn\u2019t achieve their original goal \u2014 but they do pay more attention to how they make their choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve had that experience, and it\u2019s absolutely a double-edged sword \u2014 any time you’re bringing more strategy or wisdom to a situation, you\u2019re also raising the possibility of overthinking things or getting too in your head about it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, making a big decision is about balance \u2014 and action. If you don\u2019t make a choice, someone \u2014 or something \u2014 will make it for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We make many different types of decisions thousands of times a day, but a good chunk of the most consequential choices are made in the context of social interactions. In practice, this could mean deciding whether or not to break up with someone \u2014 or whether or not to speak your mind to your boss about something that\u2019s bothering you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Successful social decision-making typically depends<\/a> on how well we understand the intentions, emotions, and beliefs of others. When you make a social decision, you factor in traditional decision-making \u2014 which typically involves the processes of learning, valuation, and feedback \u2014 as well as the mental state of the other person or people involved. This process engages specific neural networks<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This type of decision-making is also where reason meets emotion. Studies show<\/a> that most of the time sentimental decisions are the result of intuitive processing while practical decisions are the result of rational processing. But this isn\u2019t true for all people \u2014 especially people who are emotionally connected to their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s no one-size-fits-all way everyone approaches decision-making because people are individuals. Some people might make a pro and con list when deciding whether or not to date someone \u2014 others might just go with their gut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because every decision, and every decision maker, will be different there is no universal first step for approaching a choice, Fox-Glassman says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, she says, \u201cit can be helpful for the decision maker to list their goals and then to look at what type of each goal is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the decision is more of a practical one or concerns money, writing out an objective pros-and-cons list can help. That kind of calculation-style approach works well for meeting easily quantifiable goals, Fox-Glassman explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If goals are more social \u2014 like trying to win others\u2019 approval \u2014 a more rule-based decision can be more appropriate, she says. This is thinking that something is the right thing to do, regardless of the costs. Meanwhile, decisions about emotional goals \u2014 choosing what feels good, avoiding what feels bad \u2014 might be made without you even realizing you\u2019ve made a decision yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most big decisions involve elements of all of these goals, Fox-Glassman says. And multiple goals can conflict \u2014 for example, you may want to have another child, but the family finances just aren\u2019t there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen different modes of decision-making each lead us to a different answer, that\u2019s unpleasant and might us feel bad about any choice we make \u2014 or even hesitant to decide at all,\u201d she says. \u201cBut if we can figure out where the conflict came from, we may have the option to decide which mode we want to follow, or which of the two conflicting goals is more important to us. It\u2019ll still be a trade-off, but at least it\u2019s more transparent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the end, any decision can end up being the best choice. Studies suggest<\/a> that people who dwell in a state of inaction over decisions are more likely to feel regret than those who make a decision. And once you do make a hard decision, your brain adjusts<\/a> its preferences \u2014 meaning you\u2019re more likely to be able to make another hard decision in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cPeople are generally quite bad at perceiving and using probability information.\u201d When you make a decision, you try to control the future. If you take a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/657473951_1380554514103516_2780572427202053843_n.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6912,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6910\/revisions\/6912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The factors that go into a decision<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Decision](\"https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/16\/239629c4-8e13-47d4-b84d-c96afed749a4-gettyimages-1357074921.jpg?w=374&h=249&fit=crop&crop=faces&dpr=2\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHow to feel confident about your decisions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Decision](\"https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/16\/4dbf3bdb-2169-4a8e-8bb9-3b4bdf4afb97-gettyimages-1347591866.jpg?w=374&h=249&fit=crop&crop=faces&dpr=2\")
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