Why does making decisions become harder as the day goes on? What makes us more likely to choose impulsively or avoid making choices altogether?
According to Roy Baumeister and John Tierney, decision fatigue is the depletion of our willpower, and it affects our ability to make sound choices. Their findings in the book Willpower show that modern life, with its endless options and temptations, constantly taxes our mental resources.
Keep reading to discover how Baumeister and Tierney’s research can help you make better choices and preserve your willpower when it matters most.
Roy Baumeister & John Tierney on Decision Fatigue
According to Roy Baumeister and John Tierney, decision fatigue is what happens when you run out of willpower. They say that you should minimize your willpower expenditures because you have only a limited amount. When suffering from decision fatigue, you become more susceptible to impulsive behavior, poor decision-making, and diminished performance on tasks requiring self-control.
(Shortform note: Not only is it possible to run out of willpower, you may be in a near-constant state of decision fatigue without even knowing it. As psychologist Benjamin Hardy writes in Willpower Doesn’t Work, simply living in modern society constantly drains your willpower. This is because you always have countless options to choose from (what to watch, what to eat, what to wear, and so on), as well as countless temptations like addictive social media feeds and easy access to alcohol or other drugs.)
Baumeister and Tierney contend that decision fatigue leads people to minimize the effort they put into making decisions, much like how they’d try to avoid using a muscle that’s already tired and sore. In fact, people who have exhausted their willpower tend to avoid decision-making altogether: They’ll default to “standard” or pre-set options, or else impulsively agree to the first option they’re presented with. For example, someone who goes shopping for a car while in a state of decision fatigue might simply buy the first car they’re offered at the sticker price, instead of looking for a car that more closely matches their needs and haggling for a better deal.
In less extreme cases of decision fatigue, people often simplify their decision-making criteria by focusing on just one factor, rather than thoroughly comparing their options. Baumeister and Tierney explain that someone in this state might go to a restaurant and just order the cheapest thing on the menu, rather than comparing their options to find the best combination of cost and enjoyment.
| Counterpoint: Decision Fatigue Is Still Being Studied and Debated The concept of decision fatigue is not universally accepted. Critics argue that studies of decision fatigue have been fundamentally flawed, leading to inconsistent findings. This seems to weaken the case that decision fatigue is the result of a real and finite resource (willpower) being depleted, or at least indicates there are also other factors at work in people’s decision-making processes. Furthermore, recent research suggests that people’s beliefs about willpower strongly influence how susceptible they are to decision fatigue. That is to say, people who think willpower is limited are likely to make the kinds of impulsive decisions that Baumeister and Tierney describe. Conversely, those who believe that willpower is infinite are better able to maintain their self-control even after making numerous decisions. |
