Decision research has taken the world by storm. Books like, Thinking Fast and Slow have become best sellers. Dan Ariely speaks of the predictable irrational side of humanity. There is no doubt that we humans have the dark side. It does make us vulnerable and therefore, our behavior may be predictable. Today big data analytics and decision research seem to be coming together to benefit market and politics. We are in an era of neuromarketing. We may also think that our politics is fast becoming neuropolitics. We, therefore, will try and understand what this decision research is manifesting about our decision making. This might enable us to understand how market forces and political powers strive to manipulate us and lead us to take decisions that we may otherwise not take. Understanding these dynamic processes might help us to resist manipulation or at least enable us to make enlightened decisions.
We as humans rarely choose anything on absolute terms. We do not have an inner value meter that tells us how much things are worth. We, therefore, choose things because we feel those things have advantage over other things. Maybe a small illustration will help. When we go to the super market to buy food items, drinks, clothes, snacks etc., we get thrilled to find that we have can choose by comparing with other products and think that we have made a best purchase and even in some cases, we feel that we have saved some money. Although, we are fully convinced that these decisions are our very own, decision research reveals us that there are many factors that influenced us to make our choices of some products over others. Indeed, the findings of decision research are used by market forces and political powers for their advantage. Neuromarketing and Neuropolitics employ aspects of neuroscience, psychology and marketing for commerce and politics. Consider the case of the new Borim bridge in Goa. The Government has proposed some seven alignments of the bridge and put them before the people. The people, therefore, are bought into pro-bridge decision by thinking that they are choosing the less damaging route.
Decision research manifests that we humans usually do not know what we want till we see it in a context. We may not want a car until a neighbor has bought the same. This might lead us buy a costlier car even when we really do not need it. We may even do not know what we want in life until a we find what a friend is doing. We feel we have to do just what this friend is doing. Just like a pilot lands his/ her aircraft guided by the lights on the runway, we too need several guiding lights to make our decisions on the runway of life. We usually think less about our decisions. They are often quickly made based on these guiding lights that are often illumined by the market and political forces. Often when we see a very high price of a dish on a menu, we end up opting for the second best deal we have there. Even though the high priced dish remains unbought the restaurant still does good business. It sells the second best deal. Thus ,the restaurant still makes its money by playing the high price dish our mind. The dish that is priced high influences our decision. There is nothing rational about these decisions. They are done because of the anchoring power of the high priced dish. Thus, our decision can be manufactured. Decision research is working to manufacture our decision.
We are always looking at things in relation to others. Our mind seems to be wired this way. We cannot help this. This is not just true about our things that we may buy things like bicycles or cars but it is also true about our opinions and ideological leanings. But we do not exhaustively compare things. We take the easiest path. We decide by comparison that makes us feel that we have some gain to make by making that decision. The market forces make us indulge into a small easy comparison. But control the outcome of the decision. Let us say someone wants to buy a house. Hence, he visits a broker. The broker shows him three houses. Each of them is an architectural marvel. Two of them are Indo-Portuguese while the third one is modern. Modern is very costly. Indo-Portuguese houses are almost equally priced. But there is a catch. One of the Indo-Portuguese mansions has a weak roof. The owner offers a discount to cover for the cost of the repair of the roof of the house. Which house will the person buy? We will discover that he is led to make a decision in favor of the Indo-Portuguese mansion that does not need any repairs.
Decision studies point to what they call decoy effect as affecting our decision. It is a secret factor that moves us to decide. When faced with a choice between the two options, if one is given a third option, one is likely to opt for one of the two option. Even in Politics, when we are faced between two national parties, we are given the third option, we are more likely to choose one of the two parties. Decoy effect is said to guide even our decision to get married where one has to choose one’s life partner. Our decisions are manufactured by engineering a decoy effect. It might seem irrational. Perhaps it is. It is this irrational side of our decision taking that makes us predictable. This is why both market forces and political powers strive to use decision research to influence consumers and voters. Hence, we have the challenge to understand the decoy effect that marks our decision taking. This understanding will enable us to resist powerful forces that influence our decision making and make more enlightened and free decisions.
