Top Ten Things Choice Theory Can Do For You

No matter what choice theory is, there are a few universal truths. First, it's an incredibly optimistic way to live life because it doesn't deny the fact that most people have trouble choosing right. Second, this theory offers some great insights into everyday decision-making, including how to juggle multiple competing options and why we might choose one thing over another. What's more, choice theory can help increase productivity by reducing anxiety or fear of failure and by producing better results in key areas such as job performance or sports performance. And lastly, the choices themselves are quite diverse — from long-term personal goals to short-term daily decisions — so you're always bound for interesting new experiences...

That's the summary of choice theory as presented in my Forbes "How To..." article – "How To Master The Art Of Choosing." It's a very positive spin on choice theory and I can't find anything wrong with it, but there are a few things that I'd like to point out:

First, it seems to me that the article features only one woman. In 2006, Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman published a book called Thinking Fast And Slow , in which he describes how two different brain systems — System 1 (intuitive thinking) and System 2 (analytical thinking) — control our day-to-day decision-making. In particular, Kahneman talks about our preference for System 1 thinking over System 2 thinking "When it comes to making decisions, the brain processes information in the most efficient way possible. We have a principle that's embodied in human behavior that says 'whenever anything can be avoided, it should be.' That's why we prefer intuitive judgments to logical ones — because they're computationally easier."

It's important to note that Kahneman himself is no fan of choice theory because he believes that people use choice theory in an extremely unrealistic way. In one of his books , Kahneman describes how he studied the subjects of two different experiments carried out by psychologist Walter Mischel and the payoff for memorising a list of words or playing a game with children.

The first experiment was carried out in the 1960s. Here, children were offered a choice between a single cookie now or two cookies after some waiting. The second experiment was in the 1990s. As part of this experiment, Mischel offered his subjects an option to either play a simple computer game or face failure and boredom.

So what did Kahneman find?   Like I said before, people like to go with the "path of least resistance", which explains why children memorised the list of words more often than they opted to receive two cookies later on.

What's more, people also tend to prefer easy wins over difficult ones.

In One of Kahneman's books , he wrote, "Our minds default to the easier path when we have free choice and the alternative is difficult, and we change our minds when confronted with a difficult alternative."   Unfortunately for choice theory in this case, people will go for the easier option even if it doesn't bring about the best outcome.

"The more time you spend on a task, the more likely you are to do poorly," says Kahneman. "This isn't because you dislike what you're doing; it's because as time goes on your mind becomes habituated to whatever it is that you're doing. Whether you are searching for a word, playing a game or forming an impression, after a while it becomes difficult to see it afresh."

Although, some of the top performers in life do exactly that, that is, choose things that aren't necessarily easy. These people are in pursuit of excellence, which means they walk the path less travelled by and master the art of choosing .

Michele Rigoli is one such person and he's a master at using choice theory to help people make better decisions.

That's why Rigoli produced the book " Top Ten Things Choice Theory Can Do For You ." In this book for example, Rigoli points out how "choice theory can help increase productivity...

Conclusion

I think the problem with choice theory is that the authors want you to see it as the be-all, end-all and that's simply not true.

In addition to its limitations, choice theory has another problem too. It's extremely popular which means that it can also be very misleading. People tend to believe that choice theory is a "magic pill" for everything and won't realise that you (and I) still have to make choices most of the time, even with this theory being in our back pocket.

This is why any other system would work better for me. I don't have any problem making decisions in my life because if I did, it would lead me down a very dark path indeed.