The Daily Stat: Why We Get Sucked into Trivial Decisions

Are you having trouble viewing this email? If so, click here to see it in a web browser. HOME   |   BLOGS   |   THE MAGAZINE   |   BOOKS   |   AUTHORS   |   STORE RSS   |   Mobile APRIL 5, 2013 Why We Get Sucked into Trivial Decisions Faced with tough choices such as whether to do a fun task for low pay or a dull task for high pay, research participants agonized over their decisions twice as long if the choices were reversible (and thus unimportant) than if they were binding (and thus important), say Aner Sela of the University of Florida and Jonah Berger of The Wharton School. We tend to assume that unimportant decisions will be easy; if they're unexpectedly difficult, we switch to viewing them as highly important and spend more time dithering, the researchers say. Source: Decision Quicksand: How Trivial Choices Suck Us In Share Today's Stat: FEATURED PRODUCT HBR's 10 Must Reads on Making Smart Decisions (with featured article "Before You Make That Big Decision…" by Daniel Kahneman, Dan Lovallo, and Olivier Sibony) EBook Now Available Learn why bad decisions happen to good managers—and how to make better ones. If you read nothing else on decision making, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you and your organization make better choices and avoid common traps. Leading experts such as Ram Charan, Michael Mankins, and Thomas Davenport provide the insights and advice you need to: (1) Make bold decisions that challenge the status quo, (2) Support your decisions with diverse data, (3) Evaluate risks and benefits with equal rigor, (4) Check for faulty cause-and-effect reasoning, (5) Test your decisions with experiments, (6) Foster and address constructive criticism, and (7) Defeat indecisiveness with clear accountability. ADVERTISEMENT Follow the Stat: BEST SELLERS HBR's 10 Must Reads: The Essentials HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations HBR Guide to Better Business Writing HBR Guide to Getting the Right Work Done PREVIOUS STATS Corporate Fraud Loves Company Prices with More Syllables Seem Bigger to Consumers Market Forces Make the U.S. a World Leader in CO2 Reduction For Greater Happiness, Spend Less Time Working and Commuting How a Federal Tax Gave Us Bebop A Vicious Cycle: Cuts in News Coverage Alienate Readers Many High School Grads Say "No, Thanks" to More-Selective Colleges The New Baseball Manager's Job Is to Reverse the Previous Guy's Bad Choices Startups with Female Directors Have Better Chance of Survival Higher Levels of Social Capital Lead to Fewer Traffic Fatalities Introducing Mobile ManageMentor Powered by the proven content of Harvard ManageMentor™ iTunes >> Android >> UNSUBSCRIBE   |   UPDATE YOUR PROFILE   |   MORE EMAIL NEWSLETTERS   |   PRIVACY POLICY Was this email forwarded to you? If so, sign up to start receiving your own copy. ABOUT THIS MAILING LIST You have received this message because you subscribed to the "The Daily Stat" email newsletter from Harvard Business Review. If at any point you wish to remove yourself from this list, change your email address, or sign up for other email newsletters and alerts, please visit the Harvard Business Review Email Newsletter Preference Center. OPT OUT If you do not wish to receive any email messages from Harvard Business Review, click here. ADVERTISE WITH HBR This enewsletter is read by thousands of decision makers every day. Learn more about connecting your brand with this audience. Copyright © 2013 Harvard Business School Publishing, an affiliate of Harvard Business School. All rights reserved. Harvard Business Publishing | 60 Harvard Way | Boston, MA 02163 Customer Service: 800-545-7685 (+1-617-783-7600 outside the U.S. and Canada)