15/09/2022
There are situations in which it seems easier to choose. This is what happens when the alternatives and criteria are obvious and we only have to carefully solve the problem that has the right answer. For example, to choose one of the routes around the city, taking into account the situation with traffic jams.
The other case is more complicated: the alternatives are known, but we can compare them on different grounds. Which of these is important to us? An example is any shopping trip. Let's say, when buying clothes, beauty, price, color, practicality, originality, etc. are important. - But what's more important? There is no definite answer...
HOW RATIONAL ARE OUR CHOICES?
No matter how we try to base decisions on purely rational grounds, we deceive ourselves," says psychologist Daniel Kahneman, professor at Princeton University (USA). Irrational assumptions and prejudices always interfere with this process and create errors in our reasoning.
For example, Kahneman has shown that we are much more sensitive to losses than to gains: the pain of losing $20 is sharper than the joy of gaining it. We fear plane crashes, even though they occur 26 times less frequently than car accidents, because reports of them are accompanied by impressive, memorable footage, unlike car accidents, the information about which is presented by dry numbers.
In the process of choosing, we convince ourselves that most people would do the same in our place, and no real facts are able to change our minds. It turns out that it is impossible to calculate exactly "how it will actually be," we simply unconsciously "adjust" the decision to a ready-made answer, prompted by intuition, our numerous beliefs and prejudices. And whether they turn out to be right or not is a matter of luck.
BUT HOW DO WE CHOOSE CORRECTLY?
That is, perhaps, the main question. The answer: you can't make the right choice.
"Our lives are made only once," states writer Milan Kundera, "and therefore we can never determine which of our decisions was right and which was wrong. In a given situation, we can decide only once, and we are not given any second, third, or fourth life to be able to compare the different decisions.
We can only say whether the decision we made was good or bad in terms of our satisfaction with it, but we cannot determine whether it was the best or the worst, because even a decision that is good in its consequences may not be the best, and a bad decision may be the lesser of evils.
It is not uncommon to choose between bad and very bad. Yegor Gaidar's economic reforms had many negative consequences; it's hard to argue with this. But was there a better option at the time? None of his passionate critics name such an option.
Making a choice: why is it so difficult
MISTAKES ARE POSSIBLE.
If making the right choice is impossible, doesn't that mean we don't care what we choose? No, it doesn't. A choice cannot be right or wrong, but it can be good or bad, and the line between the two runs in our minds.
No choice can be made entirely rationally; irrational, uncalculated components play a large part in it as well. We have a chance to make a good choice, if we recognize that there is no one objectively correct decision, and at any option it is possible to make a mistake.
In this case, we act at our own risk. We accept responsibility, recognize the decision as our own and invest in the implementation of what we have chosen. And if we fail, we don't regret, but rather learn from our mistakes.
If we are convinced that there is only one objectively correct decision, and we believe that it is possible to "calculate" it rationally, believing that everything will somehow happen by itself, we make a bad choice.
So many of us vote for the "right" candidate in an election, and then "lie on the stove" until the next one. If our expectations are not met, we are likely to blame everyone around us except ourselves and feel disappointment, irritation, and resentment.
