Decision Making

Life is a series of big decisions -- which field to pursue, which college to go to, what to become, whom to marry, which company to work for, where to live and so on -- and their consequences. And then smaller decisions like which fruit to eat, which shirt to wear, which movie to watch, which book to read, which car to buy, etc.

Are we capable of making rational decisions?

Sometime back I received a booklet from Singapore's Health Ministry, which described HOTA (Human Organ Transplant Act). The Human Organ Transplant Act (HOTA) is about an organ donation system that allows (with people's own consent) for the removal of kidneys, livers, hearts and corneas from Singapore citizens and permanent residents after their death, for the sole purpose of transplantation.

The package also included a form which required you to "opt-out" if you were not interested in donating your organs after death. In other words, if you don't opt out, you're already "in." This letter was sent to all Singapore citizens and permanent residents aged between 21 and 60.

What did I do with the form? How did I deal with this rather scary subject of organ donation? First I kept it aside, telling myself to bother about it later when I have time to read the whole booklet and think about it. Later on, after couple of days, I looked at it, but still didn't feel like doing anything about it. After few more days, I just left it as it is, silently telling myself to forget about it. In other words, I didn't take any decision, which meant I gave consent for the default option: agreeing to donate my organs.

Why was I so reluctant to decide on this issue? Was the form itself involved a clever tactic to make people agree for joining HOTA? Behavioral economist Dan Ariely provides a beautiful explanation for these two questions and shows how naive we are when it comes to making decisions.