The Truth About Making Better Decisions

Robert E. Gunther

Get real. If you want to consider a decision seriously, you need to move it from an abstract idea to a concrete reality. When motorists were asked about buying cleaner gasoline in the abstract, they were all for it, but when it came down to paying extra at the pump, that was another matter. Unless you are facing an immediate decision, most decisions are considered in the abstract. What will you do tomorrow or next year? Making decisions more concrete will change the way you approach them.

This can be seen in decisions about giving to charitable causes. People are much more likely to give to an identifiable victim than in response to compelling statistics. A study by researchers Deborah ...