February 17, 2006
News flash: “Too much contemplation gets in the way of good decision-making”! (Greg Miller, Science, February 17,2006). “Thinking too hard about complex decisions…may lead to worse choices”! (Newsday, February 17, 2006). “New advice for anyone who is struggling to make a difficult decision: Stop thinking about it”! (Boston Globe, February 17, 2006) Dimwits everywhere rejoice!
A new study in today’s Science magazine says that thinking too much is bad for you. I think not.
I admit I was intrigued by these new findings. But the spin is all wrong.
Psychologists at the University of Amsterdam studied different ways people make decisions about things like buying shampoo or a new car. Some of their subjects evaluated all the relevant information—price,size, what have you—and then made a decision. Others evaluated all the relevant information, then killed sometime distracting themselves, and then made their decision.When faced with only a few variables, surrounding the choice to buy shampoo,for example, the first method worked better (judged subjectively as well as objectively). But when faced with a larger array of variables, surrounding buying a house or car, the second method worked better. Why? Because, the researchers say, the second method allows the brain to do some unconscious processing, which is probably better than the conscious mind at synthesizing complex variables.
To me this study underlined how important it is for people to have downtime—time away from rapid-fire, always-on computer and television screens, instant messaging, cell phones, deadlines, one damn just-in-time thing after another. The need for contemplation! For relaxation! For all the things that allow one to descend below conscious thought into (hopefully) deeper levels of processing. Say, like…sleep! Music! Literature!
And so the spin that the press is putting on it—”Stop thinking!”—is all wrong. What the study suggests is: Think Deeper.
But it is suggestive that the “stop thinking” angle has such appeal. What does it mean? Nothing good, I’m afraid. Seems like yet another sign of a society in decline, one that elects cowboys as presidents and considers contemplation suspicious.
