The Decision Lab

Why do group projects get such a bad reputation? 😤 In the academic and working worlds alike, group projects are an unavoidable fact of life. Also unavoidable: at least one person is sure to slack off, leaving everyone else to pull their weight. Turns out, there is a name for this. "Social loafing" describes how people tend to put in less effort on any given assignment when they are working with others than if they had performed the same task on their own. What causes social loafing, and what can you do to stop it from happening? Read more about it on our website 👉 https://lnkd.in/eSs3bRkf    #psychology #behsci #behavioralscience #culture #peopleandculture #collaboration

How does being asked to keep secrets at work impact our well-being? The results are conflicting. On the one hand, confidentiality can harm “hedonic well-being” by making employees feel stressed out. On the other hand, confidentiality can enhance “eudaimonic well-being” by making employees feel like their work is more meaningful. To better understand this research, read more from authors Michael Slepian, Eric Anicich, and Nir Halevy published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.👇 https://lnkd.in/eGqGtrYC

Can AI help us eat healthier? 🍽️ Now we can discover new recipes, personalize meal plans, and achieve our dietary goals — all with just a few taps on our phones. However, this new technology is far from perfect — with data privacy and limited accuracy being top concerns. This begs the question: is the new personalized AI nutritionist worth it? In this new piece, our contributor Yuzhen (Valerie) Guo dives into the pros and cons, highlighting the importance of a behavioral perspective in making the most of machine learning for healthy eating. Check it out here 👉 https://lnkd.in/edYMJPty

We prefer things we make ourselves, thanks to the IKEA effect. 🔨 Scroll through to find out more👇 or check out our full article here 👉https://lnkd.in/gAeVneAP

Saying “yes” after someone pops the big question is just the first of many big decisions we make while getting married. 💍 From choosing the dress and venue to deciding on the cake and guest list, the multitude of choices can be overwhelming. Each one carries the weight of being “The One,” making it easy for cognitive biases to creep into the wedding planning process. Luckily, our staff writer and newlywed Yael Mark is here to help. Discover how to make irrational thinking stand still before reaching the altar in her new article below.👇 https://lnkd.in/exiPSyxW #behavioralscience #weddings #marriage #cognitivebias #financialplanning

We are quickly shifting toward a cashless society. 💸 Innovations like Apple Pay have made it easier and easier to buy things without even reaching for your wallet. With the quick tap of your phone, any purchase is already at your fingertips. But as you may have already realized, this increased convenience comes at a cost to our financial decision-making. Research shows that we're often more willing to pay for things if there's no physical money involved in the transaction, making us prone to compulsive overspending. Learn more about the cashless effect on our website 👉https://lnkd.in/g6msCci #behavioralfinance #cognitivebias #behavioralscience #cashlesssociety

Who do you trust more: humans or ChatGPT? 🤖 According to recent research, the answer all depends on context. While participants who were unaware of authorship trusted statements they believed were written by humans more, those who knew whether the author was human or AI were equally skeptical of both. Delve deeper into the paper by Joy Buchanan and William Hickman from the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics below. 👇 https://lnkd.in/ei75QFiM

After a long day at the office, the last thing you want is a mentally taxing drive home. As you pull out of the parking lot, you’re startled when another car comes whipping down the road. You slam on your brakes and express yourself *tastefully* by honking your horn. 🔊 As the shock wears off, you shake your head and sigh, “Why is everyone a worse driver than me?” 🚗 Turns out, you aren’t alone in thinking that. In fact, when we surveyed university students, 97% of them agreed that they were “good drivers.” ✅ However, on that same questionnaire, only 48% of the students disagreed when asked if their peers drive recklessly around the university campus. 🚫 Yeah, that math isn’t quite adding up. ➕ Luckily, TDL consultant Jerónimo Muñoz Castillo Kanahuati is here to explain why this may be. Spoiler alert, we’re talking cognitive biases. Let's take a look ⬆ Above-average effect 👉 is a bias where individuals overestimate their abilities compared to others, particularly in subjective or hard-to-measure areas—like driving. 🙎♂️ Self-serving bias 👉 leads us to credit our successes to personal traits and blame failures on external factors. In driving scenarios, this is where we fault others or circumstances instead of ourselves. ☑ Confirmation bias 👉 is our tendency to notice and give more weight to information that supports our existing beliefs, like believing we are better drivers and only acknowledging instances of others' poor driving. 📝 Responses and Social Desirability Bias 👉 involves giving inaccurate answers to align with perceived expectations. 👭 And social desirability bias 👉 leads us to answer in ways that conform to societal norms, such as overstating driving skills to fit social expectations. Ready to learn more? Park the myths and read Jero’s full article here 👉https://lnkd.in/e46itSi6    

To publish, or to perish, that is the question. 📚 To read the full article click here 👉 https://lnkd.in/egbZhiqX

They say time is money and as it turns out we struggle to manage both. 💸 ⏰ When you think about it, money and time share a lot of the same vocabulary. We spend, save, waste, we invest, but we are also heavily taxed. What does it mean to be time poor? Well, as Celestine Joy Rosales writes, it is the pervasive feeling of having too much to do and not enough time to do it. We’ve all felt the effects of time poverty, and it’s not just about being overly “busy.” In this TDL article, Celestine dives deep into the concept of time poverty and its hidden costs on our well-being. For example, our physical and cognitive health suffers when we don’t have enough time to dedicate to them. The most significant hurdle to leading a healthy lifestyle is finding the time to get to the gym in the first place. Similarly, constant time pressure narrows our thinking, making us focus on immediate tasks rather than long-term goals. So we’ve presented the problem but how do we fix it? And, whose responsibility is it to fix it? Check out Celestine’s full article here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eQ4DJvm5 It’s time to rethink our relationship with time ⏳  #MentalHealth #Productivity