Your “Choice Muscle” Needs Fuel, Too

The New York Times’s John Tierney just published an article about making decisions, called “Do you Suffer from Decision Fatigue?“  It’s one of the best, most in-depth articles I’ve read about the physiology of decision-making.  It’s long, but if you’re into this sort of thing, I really recommend reading it.

(The article is a good followup to my post from a few months ago, which discussed what economists Sheena Iyengar and Tim Harford think about this topic.)

High level summary

• Making decisions is difficult work, so we get tired of doing it.  At the end of the day after we’ve made many decisions, we either make worse decisions or no decisions at all.
• We make better decisions when our brains have access to glucose.  This is why we frequently crave sugary foods after a series of tough decisions.  However, having a constant supply of glucose from protein-rich foods ensures better overall decision-making throughout the day.

And who has the best self control?

People with the best self-control are the ones who structure their lives so as to conserve willpower. They don’t schedule endless back-to-back meetings. They avoid temptations like all-you-can-eat buffets, and they establish habits that eliminate the mental effort of making choices. Instead of deciding every morning whether or not to force themselves to exercise, they set up regular appointments to work out with a friend. Instead of counting on willpower to remain robust all day, they conserve it so that it’s available for emergencies and important decisions.

“Even the wisest people won’t make good choices when they’re not rested and their glucose is low,” Baumeister points out. That’s why the truly wise don’t restructure the company at 4 p.m. They don’t make major commitments during the cocktail hour. And if a decision must be made late in the day, they know not to do it on an empty stomach. “The best decision makers,” Baumeister says, “are the ones who know when not to trust themselves.”

The post is available here.