According to the research, bad decisions can often be traced back to the way the decisions were made. Perhaps the alternatives were not clearly defined, the right information was not collected or the costs and benefits were not accurately weighted. Sometimes, the fault lies in the mind of the decision maker rather than in the decision-making process.
The research has examined eight psychological traps that can affect the way that decisions are made. They include the anchoring trap, the status-quo trap, the sunk-cost trap and the confirming-evidence trap. They also include the framing trap, the overconfidence trap, the prudence trap and the recallability trap. The best way to avoid all of these traps is awareness. Forewarned is forearmed!
Learn more by reading the article “The Hidden Traps in Decision Making” by John S. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeney and Howard Raiffa in the Harvard Business Review on Making Smart Decisions.
