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Are you a Maximizer or a Satisficer? How to Make Better Decisions – EQ Education

by Patty Freedman

Are you feeling overwhelmed? Did you know that the average adult makes over 35,000 decisions everyday? (Sollisch, 2016) It’s easy to understand why so many of us are crumbing from “decision fatigue.” In this month’s newsletter we explore how emotional intelligence can help you develop strategies to be more efficient and balanced in your decisions not defeated by them. Keep reading for EQ research and resources you can use for you, your faculty and students.

🔴 Thinking About: How to make better decisions 

🟡 Research says: Too many choices can lead to lower outcomes

🟠 Did you see this?: Counterpoint to Youth Mental Health Crisis

🟢 Try it Yourself: 5 tips to make decisions less overwhelming

🔵 Mark your calendar: Events for educators – will you join us?

🔴 Thinking About: How to make better decisions

Some of us can’t make a decision until we’ve gathered all the information. Others seem to not break a sweat while looking at the endless choices of cereal in the grocery aisle breeze through making a choice. Who’s making better decisions? It turns out that people who make “good enough” decisions, instead of “perfect” ones, are often happier.

Decision making styles basically fall into 2 camps: Maximisers and “Satisficers”: (a combo of satisfy and suffice) Maximizers want to make the “best decision.” Satisficers want to make the ‘good enough’ decision.” 

Maximisers are at a disadvantage these days because they want all the data before they make a decision– but we have unlimited access to an impossible quantity of information. At the same time we have too many choices in our lives today. There’s a point at which the number of choices available to us becomes detrimental instead of beneficial.

You may have heard of “decision fatigue” Decision fatigue is when someone is comfortable making decisions most of the time but begins to struggle after a seemingly endless series of them. Indecisiveness, however, is different. It causes someone to routinely struggle or avoid making decisions. Maximisers often struggle with decision fatigue. According to a recent article in the Washington Post, Maximisers tend to be less satisfied with their lives, less optimistic, more depressed, take longer to recover from bad decisions, ruminate more, savor positive events less, don’t cope as well with negative events and are more prone to regret.

How can emotional intelligence help you make better decisions? 

Know yourself– Learn more about your decision making style. Be able to identify when you feel overwhelmed, anxious, tired or irritated by decision making.

Choose yourself– Make choices and set up healthy limits for yourself about decision making. Don’t let decision making become an ordeal. 

Give yourself- Focus on your goals and make decisions that support them. 

Read more below in the “Try it Yourself” section below for 5 tips to help you make decisions less overwhelming.

🟡 Research says: Too many choices can lead to lower outcomes

A study published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2001) challenged the idea “the more choice- the better” Researchers at Stanford and Columbia Universities compared two groups of people trying sample jams in a supermarket setting. One group was offered 6 different samples to choose from and the other group was offered 24 different samples to choose from. Both groups were given discount coupons to purchase jam. The results were surprising, 30% of the 6 choice group purchased jam while only 3% of the 24 choice group purchased jam. “The findings from this study show that an extensive array of options can at first seem highly appealing to consumers, yet can reduce their subsequent motivation to purchase the product.”

They did a second experiment by offering extra credit assignments to their students for bonus points. They compared two groups – groups were offered either 6 different essay topics (limited-choice condition) or 30 different essay topics (extensive-choice condition). The limited-choice group participated at 74% rate while extensive-choice group participated at 65% rate. However the quality of their work was statistically significant. “On average, students in the limited-choice condition scored higher (M = 8.04, SD = 1.33) than students in the extensive-choice condition.”

Researchers found that, in both experiments, “people actually seemed to prefer to exercise their opportunity to choose in contexts where their choices were limited.” “Extensive-choice contexts may be initially more appealing but are subsequently more likely to hamper people’s intrinsic motivation.”

They conclude “when people have ‘too many’ options to consider, they simply strive to end the choice-making ordeal by finding a choice that is merely satisfactory, rather than optimal. Doing otherwise would demand more effort than seems justified by the prospective increase in utility or satisfaction.”

What does this study mean for our classrooms? Choice plays several important roles; develops intrinsic motivation, increases engagement and improves performance on tasks (from cleaning up their room to getting dressed independently). We design our lessons and our homes to provide students with choices so they develop autonomy and independence. But too many choices can de-motivate and deplete our students. We need to strike a balance between choice and limits. More research is needed to develop best practices for appropriate levels of student choice in schools.

🟠 Did you see this?: Counterpoint to Youth Mental Health Crisis

The recent State of the Heart report joins a growing body of research sounding an alarm about mental health challenges young people are facing. Does increasing awareness about mental health make it worse? A challenging article in the New York Times reports on a study about “prevalence inflation” which claims that increased awareness makes mental health worse. The article says: “This remains a minority view among specialists in adolescent mental health, who mostly agree that the far more urgent problem is lack of access to treatment.”

It is still concerning. There is clearly a massive need to improve mental health, especially for young people. The notion that we should “not talk so much about it” runs counter to numerous studies (example) that find stigmatization remains a major barrier for people to get help.

At Six Seconds, we’re committed to equipping people with the emotion skills to have healthy, positive and productive lives. The same State of the Heart research shows, again, that there’s a strong, positive correlation between developing emotional intelligence and these outcomes, including wellbeing. Accurately naming and understanding emotions, even difficult ones, is a central skill for emotional intelligence – so we hope people will continue to find healthy and positive ways to have these important conversations.

🟢 Try it Yourself: 5 tips to make decisions less overwhelming

Go all in. When you make a decision, really commit to it. Researchers say when there’s no going back, you make the best of what you have, but when people are offered options to undo their decision, most of the time they go back.

Flex your style. You don’t need to be a Maximiser every time for every decision. Sometimes it’s ok to experiment with other strategies for making choices, especially when time is short or stakes are low. Alternatively if you are a Satisficer, delving more deeply into the details can be helpful for big decisions.

Automate parts of your day. Many decisions are relatively insignificant, yet they gobble up mental energy that could be spent on more worthwhile pursuits. What can you do to make decisions easier for yourself? Try setting up automatic systems or patterns for yourself (eg: prep food in advance, set a consistent time for exercise, lay out clothes the night before. Other ideas?)

Set limits. Set constraints on your decision-making process. Weigh how important this decision is and decide how deeply you want to invest. Then set yourself a limit or time constraint, eg, “I will invest 15 min on this,” or “I will make a decision before lunch.” 

Forget the details. Research has shown that, in addition to the quantity of information analyzed, the quality of your insights is crucial. Using the “fuzzy-trace theory,” where you can make a good decision based on the gist rather than studying the details. 

Bonus tip – Collaborative decisions can be especially time and energy consuming! If you are making a decision with another person, try to find out who cares the most about the outcome, then let that person make the final decision.

🔵 Mark your calendar: Events for educators – will you join us?

Free online events EQ Café “Unwinding Anxiety” about shifting from reaction to response — and coming soon: “From Reaction to Response” — multiple dates

Emotional intelligence mini-workshops online – multiple dates

​The EQ Educator Certification – multiple dates in partnership with Antioch University, online events ​SEL for Educator Wellbeing certificate program

SEL Leadership Institute in partnership with Teachers College, Columbia University, in-person – July 29 – 30, 2024 in New York, NY

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