When it comes to making tough decisions, the age-old advice to “sleep on it” may not be so helpful after all, according to a paper by Uma R. Karmarkar of Harvard Business School and colleagues. Study participants who slept after choosing their favorite of four bags remembered slightly more information about the bags, on average, than those who hadn’t — and they tended to remember more positive attributes overall. However, when asked how confident they were that they had picked the right bag, they reported being less certain with their choice. The positivity gained after sleep may have made it harder for people to rule out some of the bags, the researchers surmise. “If you are trying to make people feel more confident and rule out options, there could be some benefit to stepping away for a period, but not necessarily sleeping on it,” Karmarkar says.
Source: Why 'Sleep on It' No Longer Sounds Like Great Advice
