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00:14Decisions, decisions, decisions.
00:17Every day we're faced with hundreds, if not thousands of them.
00:24From the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep,
00:27we are making choices non-stop.
00:30We all make decisions every single day and are always asking ourselves,
00:34well, why did I do that?
00:38Unfortunately, as a species,
00:40we humans aren't always the best at making good choices.
00:43Whoa! See what I mean?
00:47I'm here to tell you, it's not our fault!
00:51While some people work hard to hone their decision-making skills...
00:55All right, let's go in!
00:58Many of us don't give a second thought to how we make most of our choices.
01:03Luckily, decision scientists have done some pretty cool research
01:06on the way we make choices when it comes to important things, like eating.
01:11Here is what happened in your brain in response to healthy compared to unhealthy foods.
01:17And dating.
01:18Yeah, I've been deciding to date younger men.
01:21I feel like there's too much choice, there's too many faces.
01:23And making rash decisions.
01:25How much does the ball cost?
01:27Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's 10-10.
01:29What these experts are uncovering has the potential to change our lives.
01:34Woo!
01:34Join me as we do a deep dive into their amazing and really helpful discoveries.
01:39To understand how you, me, all of us can make better decisions.
02:01Like many people, I knock it out of the park with some of my decisions.
02:05But other times, a strikeout.
02:08To learn why, decision scientist Mary Steffel, from Northeastern University in Boston, is
02:14joining me to do a revealing street experiment.
02:17Good to see you!
02:18Oh, man!
02:19It's a gorgeous day, the game's on, the crowds are happy, this feels like a good day for some
02:23decision science.
02:24Absolutely!
02:25I've got the perfect experiment that will illustrate something about what we all do when we make
02:29decisions, big or small.
02:31Cool, I'm game, yeah.
02:34It's called the bat and ball problem, and we've got the perfect guinea pigs to test it
02:39on.
02:42I have a question for you guys.
02:44So a bat and a ball together cost $1.10.
02:48The bat costs a dollar more than the ball.
02:50How much does the ball cost?
02:53Ten cents.
02:54Ten cents.
02:55Ten cents.
02:56Ten cents.
02:56Ten cents.
02:57The ball's ten cents.
02:58Ten cents.
02:59Ten cents.
02:59Ten cents.
02:59But after doing a few calculations, our youngest participant realized something's up.
03:04That seems a little too simple for a brain teaser.
03:07As this little guy figured out, the knee-jerk, intuitive answer isn't actually right.
03:12But it's what we're hearing the most.
03:16Decision scientists call this type of automatic, intuitive decision-making system one.
03:21System one is universal.
03:23Tourists from around the world also chose their answers very quickly.
03:27All right.
03:28So a bat and a ball together cost $1.10.
03:31The bat costs a dollar more than the ball.
03:33How much does the ball cost?
03:35Oh.
03:36Ten cents?
03:37Ten cents?
03:38That's your answer.
03:39Uh, no.
03:40Yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:40It's ten cents.
03:41The ball cost $0.10.
03:46Who would guess the ball is ten cents?
03:48Like, if the ball is ten cents, then the bat is a dollar more than the bat would be $1
03:54.10.
03:55And the total is $1.10.
03:59Right.
03:59All right.
04:00I'm so confused.
04:02Just about everyone who thought about the problem deliberately, even the people who originally
04:07got it wrong, eventually got there.
04:10This slower, more effortful way of thinking is called system two.
04:15Yeah.
04:16It should be five cents.
04:17All right.
04:18So walk me through the math, then.
04:19Yeah.
04:19So the ball is five cents.
04:21The ball is five cents.
04:22And the bat is a dollar more.
04:24Then it would be $1.05.
04:26And plus the five cents of the ball, it would be $1.10.
04:29Yeah.
04:29You nailed it!
04:30All right.
04:31All right.
04:31Bravo.
04:32You know what?
04:32You worked really hard.
04:33You guys deserve a round of applause for that.
04:35You worked really hard at that.
04:36I think he's onto it.
04:37It's a lift.
04:39Five cents.
04:40That's right.
04:42Oh, that took me a lot.
04:43You got there.
04:44You know why I'm impressed with you guys is you fought through it and you got there.
04:47High fives on that.
04:48Well done.
04:48You should be proud of yourselves.
04:50What did we win?
04:51See what's happening with the people who are getting it right?
04:54Yeah.
04:54The people who are getting it right are taking their time.
04:57They're being really deliberate about it.
04:58In a day of asking the bat and ball question, only a handful of people got it correct right
05:04away.
05:05And a couple of them admitted to hearing the question before.
05:09Mary, almost everybody got it wrong at first.
05:12I mean, what is your takeaway?
05:13That's why I love the bat and the ball problem.
05:15The intuitive answer of 10 cents just jumps out at you.
05:18And most people over rely on their intuition.
05:20So they don't double check and they don't go back and do the math.
05:23Over relying on our intuition is one of the most fundamental decision making mistakes
05:27we all make.
05:27Which worries me because I know that I'm doing this in my everyday life.
05:31And so I'm thinking to myself, I don't want to make these dumb decisions if I don't have
05:34to.
05:34What can somebody like me do to avoid these system one errors?
05:39Don't rely on your first hunch.
05:40Check your decision making if you can.
05:42Okay.
05:43Good advice.
05:43Good advice.
05:45Knowing when to trust our gut is tricky.
05:47But what if your job or your survival depends on it?
05:51Engine one.
05:51Engine two.
05:52Engine three.
05:53Chief four.
05:54Respond one, two, three.
05:56Tower away for a residential structure fire.
05:59If you're a firefighter or a nurse or a doctor, you don't always have time for deliberate
06:06system two thinking.
06:08Control engine one.
06:09We have smoke visible on route.
06:10John Robbins is a newly minted captain at the fire department in Richmond Hill, Ontario.
06:21To do his job, he has to make crucial and analytical decisions really quickly and intuitively.
06:29There is only one way you do that.
06:33Train.
06:40We have flames visible on the Bravo side.
06:42Making split second critical decisions under stress takes practice.
06:48Enter the Richmond Hill fire training facility.
06:50Today, Captain Robbins' decision making skills are going to be put to the test.
06:55He does a quick 360 around the building and has to instantly process what he sees.
07:01The scene at a fire can be very dangerous, can be very chaotic and could also change rapidly.
07:07So, you need to be making decisions quickly.
07:13Captain Robbins' first big decision.
07:15Is it safe to send his crew in without dousing the building first?
07:19Control tower commander reporting.
07:21Agent application.
07:21Agent application.
07:23He decides to douse the building.
07:25Agent application is firefighter speak for spray water on the fire.
07:33The person in charge today is veteran fire chief Fred Downing.
07:37He says hitting the fire first is the correct decision.
07:41They're putting the water on the fire to cool down the inside environment.
07:47This simple move drops the temperature from a whopping 538 degrees Celsius to about 150.
07:55Captain Robbins is off to a great start.
07:58We're redeploying to the office side.
08:00First floor for search rescue fire control.
08:02Okay.
08:07Once inside, he faces his next urgent decision.
08:11Hit the fire with water first or look for victims.
08:18Captain Robbins decides to make victims his priority.
08:22Chief Downing is now in a back room where he's keeping a watchful eye on all the action.
08:28And that is the right decision.
08:31That's what we expect.
08:33The chief says making difficult decisions under stress is all about repetition.
08:38Training allows our staff to practice their skills in a controlled environment.
08:43So when they pull up to the real situation, real emergency, those are embedded in their mind.
09:01The chief placed this mannequin strategically.
09:03With the fire raging just meters away, Captain Robbins must make his next decision.
09:08How to get the victim out of the burning building?
09:12Side window or front door?
09:16He chooses the front door.
09:19The right call because it's the quickest way out to safety.
09:24The faster we can get to somebody to help rescue them is life and death.
09:30Captain Robbins has decided the next move is to put the fire out.
09:35It's still burning strongly in the kitchen.
09:40Even seemingly small decisions, like how water is sprayed on the fire, are surprisingly complex.
09:47The correct hose stream can affect how it reacts to the fire and how the fire reacts to the water.
09:53The fire may be out, but the search isn't over.
09:57Captain Robbins' next decision is to search upstairs.
10:00We're proceeding to the second floor now.
10:02Can't go.
10:03Come on, Lee.
10:07Take your flashlight, move around, check the floor, that's it.
10:11Keep rotating the light, that's good.
10:14All right, let's go in.
10:20We got a patient.
10:22There's another victim in the second floor bedroom.
10:25This time, it's a child.
10:27Very traffic.
10:28Once again, Captain Robbins has to decide what the safest way out is.
10:34Alpha side, second floor over a ladder.
10:36Engine setting up ladder on the alpha side.
10:41The captain made the right call.
10:43Our expectations are that they'll take them out the closest window.
10:46We're taking the patient down the ladder.
10:48Okay.
10:49To get them to fresh air as fast as they can.
10:57It's all clear and the decision training is over.
11:01Robbins and his team have aced it.
11:03Time for a debrief with the chief.
11:06He wants to make sure the crew understands the reasons behind their decisions.
11:10When you found the patient up on the second floor, you decided to bring them out a window.
11:16What led you guys to that decision?
11:18I think if we could get them to fresh air as soon as possible, it would be beneficial for the
11:21patient.
11:22How did this training help you guys as a crew?
11:24In a scenario-based training, it allows me to make critical decisions and really helps us to practice our practical
11:29skills.
11:30Setting up ladder pumping, advancing hose lines, doing our search and rescues.
11:34But it also allows me to do some critical thinking.
11:39And this kind of repeated practice doesn't just help firefighters.
11:47It can help us make better decisions in a chess game.
11:51Or when we're driving.
11:53And help me with my layup.
12:02On the basketball court, you constantly have to make decisions at lightning speed.
12:08Practicing helps us with these split-second decisions in a big way.
12:16By practicing, we're internalizing patterns.
12:19And we're building muscle memory.
12:21Allowing us to make smarter decisions intuitively.
12:32Eventually, with practice, you get there.
12:43What's your best decision?
12:45Traveling across Canada.
12:47Honestly, moving and choosing the people I hang out with and spend time with
12:51to people who are more closely aligned with my goals.
12:55Starting a business.
12:57Ooh, that's cool.
12:58The best decision I've ever made is to drop out of high school and become a musician.
13:04The best decision that you've made. One that you're the proudest of.
13:07Have two babies.
13:08I used to be in finance, and now I'm in filmmaking.
13:13So that's the best decision of my life.
13:16So the best decision I ever made was that I pursued the woman I ended up getting married to.
13:38I wanted to say it, I'm turning 42 in July.
13:50there is arguably no more important decision than choosing a partner comedian caitlin jones
13:57is trying to find that special someone her dates especially the bad ones make for great material
14:03i'm leaning into the coops a bit and i'm dating younger men now caitlin has been using dating
14:10apps for a while now and on the surface they seem great endless dating profiles to swipe through
14:15but there is such a thing as too many fish in the sea i feel like there's there's too much
14:19choice
14:20there's too many faces the online apps now feel overwhelming like just in the sense of
14:26like i could easily swipe 100 people in a day if anything i think that's probably less caitlin
14:32tries to combat what's known as swipe fatigue by narrowing down the number of choices i use filters
14:38all the time mostly i filter for height i uh i'm a big lady i'm six three in hockey skates
14:44okay like
14:45height isn't caitlin's only filter uh there's the distance setting that you can set does anybody do
14:50with that like yeah okay i literally will not set it further than like five to ten kilometers and i'm
14:56like oh my my dream person could be in mississauga and that's too far i want it delivered in 15
15:02minutes
15:03like but so far the filtering hasn't helped to find her dream partner
15:10to discover why she's come to the university of toronto scarborough to meet psychology professor
15:15andre wang hi are you andre yes hi you must be caitlin cheers nice to meet you
15:21andre published a study that looks at whether there's a correlation between what people think
15:26they want in a partner so the types of things caitlin's been filtering for on a dating app
15:31and what they actually want and the question here is do these filters actually work right so if you
15:38select and pre-decide to filter out potential romantic partners on these dating apps are you better off
15:45or maybe you might be prematurely constraining the dating pool caitlin starts by rating 12 traits
15:52they're like filters on a dating app she's deciding what's important to her in a guy
15:58big old fat brain i like a big brain charismatic as the kids call it the riz these days pretty
16:05pretty
16:05fun pretty cool confident my therapist is probably going to be disappointed in me but i you got to be
16:14like a little mean just a little bit dominant yeah yeah mommy's tired now comes the fun part caitlin
16:24gets to rate 100 male faces it's sort of like a dating app but instead of swiping she'll rate
16:30how attractive she finds each guy like i would go to the rodeo with him but like
16:36yeah i'd regret it the photos are from a real online dating platform with publicly available
16:45profiles what caitlin doesn't know is that many people have already rated these faces
16:50for the same 12 traits that she rated earlier this guy could probably be nice i feel like they would
16:56actually probably bring me flowers from the gas station expert ratings are common in psychology and
17:04they're often called consensus ratings so people agree on how intelligent or confident or how
17:12sensitive or caring people in those dating profiles are this may seem weird but andre points out that
17:18this is what people do when they swipe left or right on a dating app photo they make snap judgments
17:24about
17:25whether or not they think a person looks smart or caring yeah this guy's definitely in prison he's just
17:32laying the groundwork for when he gets out andre does some clever calculations to find out if the
17:39traits caitlin thinks she likes are the ones she actually likes you mentioned that you like attractiveness
17:46a fair bit right five out of seven and if you look at the data that's what it pans out
17:53right so the
17:53more attractive the targets were the more you like the targets so that's what that positive slope means
17:59here okay cool confidence is another example and sure enough the more confident the targets were
18:05the more you liked those targets okay but caitlin's likes and her choices in men they don't always line
18:12up so you mentioned that you care about caring but if you look at the data how caring targets were
18:19had
18:20no bearing on how much you like them if anything the slope is going slightly down which means that
18:26the more caring the targets were you like them actually a little less interesting how do you
18:33feel about that i mean my therapist would agree probably but caitlin also got a surprising result
18:39for the aggressive trait oh dear oh dear the more aggressive targets were the more you liked them yeah
18:49it's a steep slope yeah this disconnect is something caitlin's experienced before on dating apps
18:55i will say like online dating like has felt overwhelming and this is making sense if i'm
19:01not recognizing that i'm thinking i want one thing but i'm clearly not choosing that
19:06yeah so like what can i do to make it better andre says the key is to get offline go
19:11to parties meet
19:12friends your friends even go to speed dating right just putting yourself out there so you know let go
19:17of the filters perhaps you could be filtering out someone that you really have a spark with
19:27kaitlin is taking andre's advice and trying something new speed dating do you have any pets uh no i don't
19:35i don't
19:35i don't have i just i'm always traveling all the time right or whatever it's so sad you're like no
19:39i want to have the women stay put
19:44hi nice to meet you and the men move from table to table i love the tattoos thank you yeah
19:50i would
19:52wake up so early to put them on when it's over andre checks in with caitlin to see how in
19:58-person
19:58compares with online in that short time do you feel like you get a sense of these different people
20:05like what they're like compared to an app much more yes very much yeah andre says the data overall
20:11shows that there's very little relation between the types of things people filter for and who
20:16they actually end up liking which is why meeting someone in person early on might be best let's
20:22imagine right that like you had met met yeah these guys online do you think you would have talked to
20:28them probably not okay like maybe one but that's a great point yeah
20:47when making a decision people tend to rely too much on the first piece of information they receive what
20:54experts call the anchor nate cheek is an assistant professor of psychology at the university of
21:01maryland he is a decision scientist and anchoring is his research passion yeah so i'm interested in
21:07how people make decisions and the kind of contextual factors that influence the judgments they make
21:11along the way oh that is really cool and actually this is the perfect place for us today oh the
21:15cn
21:16tower yeah i'm gonna have people estimate how tall they think it is okay what does that have to do
21:20with
21:20decision making well i'm gonna throw in a twist i'm gonna give people an anchor value which is
21:24kind of like a simple random reference point and we're gonna see how that influences the estimates
21:28they make that sounds awesome i'm down for an experiment let's do it let's go okay our anchor
21:32in this experiment is a number that will ask people to choose out of a box they'll do this before
21:38we ask
21:39the height of the cn tower yeah good penmanship man well i've got a box here filled with a bunch
21:48of
21:48random numbers one of you guys is going to reach into the box pull out a number and just say
21:51it out
21:51loud okay go for it expert number puller and your number is 250 250 so we have the cn tower
22:01over here
22:02if you had to guess do you think it's taller or shorter than 250 meters i'm gonna let you in
22:07on a
22:07little secret the numbers they're not random each one is the same 250 that's our anchor it's the number
22:14people here first nate wants to see how much it influences the answers they choose 258 wow okay
22:25any other guess
22:28300 300 258 300 okay the real number is yes it turns out that's 553 oh my god with an
22:35anchor of 250
22:36most guesses stay below 553 meters how tall if you had to guess with you which tower is 350 350
22:44that's
22:45your guess and your guess yeah let's go 175 like 180 500 473 so you know the actual number 553
22:55meters tall
22:56let's switch things up a little nate and i decide to go with a crazy high anchor number to see
23:01what
23:02happens go big or go home am i right 950. so we have the cn tower behind us if you
23:08had to just guess
23:08off the top of your head do you think it's taller or shorter than uh 950 meters i want to
23:15say taller
23:17okay yeah if you had to guess how tall would you say it is 3 000. first of all your
23:22guess is not an
23:23unusual one okay it is however not correct the actual number is 553 meters tall yeah so you were oh
23:30a little
23:31bit a little bit a little bit too a little bit too high the 950 anchor brings in much higher
23:37estimates way taller than any structure on the planet uh 2 000 meters 1200 1500 1 000 and 500
23:48okay 1050 1050 okay so it's 553 meters tall yeah anchoring affects almost every aspect of our lives
23:58from our shopping decisions to the way politicians present issues the first price or the first piece
24:04of information we get can become our anchor if you started shopping and the first pair of pants you
24:09happened to see was 200 that might set your price point higher for the rest of the experience causing
24:13you to be okay spending more money than if you had seen maybe a pair of 30 pants to start
24:18with
24:18yeah probably yeah i get that that makes sense next time i comparison shop i'm paying extra close
24:24attention to the price of the first thing i look at what are some of the biggest decisions that are
24:30influenced by the anchor effect i think some of the biggest decisions are choices that we don't make
24:36that often so things like car purchases house purchases and other things that uh you know cost
24:42a fair amount of money so when should people really be on the lookout for the anchor effect yeah people
24:46should be most worried about anchoring in the areas that they know the least about when you don't have
24:50any other knowledge you could potentially draw on that's when you're most vulnerable to anchors
24:54in cases like these nate says do a little research ahead of time so you know what the average prices
25:00are so nate you ever been to the cm tower no i haven't you know you can walk around on
25:05the edge you
25:05can see people out there doing it now you want to try i'm gonna say no thank you to that
25:08no thank you
25:09all right the hardest decision you had to make separating yes i agree that's tough yeah what is
25:23my hardest decision um that's a hard difficult one do i choose to continue speaking with my parents
25:32probably to have myself sterilized and not have children every time that i would try talking with
25:37them um i would just walk away not feeling great about myself i'd say the hardest decision i've made
25:44is breaking up with a girlfriend we went from eastern germany to west germany i decided to like
25:51come here in a different country by myself and started like a new life to leave our houses our
25:56families our parents i think that will be the hardest decision i ever made
26:08for most of us deciding what to eat is a struggle because there is so much choice
26:13and let's be honest it's often harder to go for the healthier options
26:19i've come to the university of toronto to get my brain scanned and find out why i make the food
26:24choices i do i like to think of myself as a fairly healthy eater you calling me a liar it's
26:33just like
26:33a warm pop tart like many folks i find it a challenge to make healthy food choices when i'm
26:39super busy or on the run hey there hey hey how's it going good so i've agreed to let sendri
26:46hutcherson
26:47director of the decision neuroscience lab stick me in the mri to see if the way my brain is wired
26:53affects the decisions i make about what i eat do you have any particularly unhealthy foods
26:58poison of choice oh yeah it's a little bit unusual i i love mayonnaise sendri started studying decision
27:05making because she wanted to find out why she made choices she regretted afterwards we all make
27:11decisions every single day and are always asking ourselves well why did i do that and so i just loved
27:17the way that the science allowed me to kind of understand myself and maybe hopefully to help other
27:24people understand themselves my first brain scan ever i'm stoked so you can go ahead and lay down really
27:41carefully
27:41all right anthony can you hear us
27:45fantastic in a bid to discover why people differ so dramatically in their ability to make good food
27:51choices sendri studies decisions that involve self-control so for instance where we have to decide
27:58whether to eat something delicious but unhealthy or try to you know deny ourselves a little bit and
28:04you know go for the salad just before i went in the mri sendri had me rate a whole whack
28:09of foods to
28:10identify a food that i find totally neutral turns out it's the lowly soda cracker she's going to use it
28:18as
28:19a baseline while i'm in the mri what we're doing right now is showing anthony about 200 foods and just
28:27seeing whether he wants that food or the default food the crackers i get four options one is a strong
28:35no i won't eat that food over the soda cracker two is a weak no three is a weak yes
28:42i'll eat it but i
28:43don't feel strongly about it four is a strong yes chips four doing okay yeah every once in a while
28:52sundry asks me to really think about healthy eating while i make my decisions i do that until i'm told
28:58to go back to picking whatever i want fantastic we're gonna do another round okay celery yeah that's
29:06one is that soda crackers still an option yeah so what we're doing here uh as anthony makes choice
29:12after choice is we're taking images of his brain and we're really interested in focusing in on a
29:19couple of key areas that we think are crucial for decision making when sundry's done she'll compare
29:24how those parts of my brain responded to healthy foods versus the unhealthy ones sundry you'll have
29:30my results in a few weeks i'm worried i'm wondering you know what you found was there anything weird
29:42about the way that my brain works or looks you know honestly anthony you were a fantastic participant
29:49oh thank god sundry was looking at my brain to find out how much self-control i have when it
29:54comes to food
29:55choices so we're really interested in what's going on in the brain that causes somebody to
30:00want something to like it and then what's happening that allows them to shift what they want to want
30:08the broccoli or to not want the ice cream but before she shows me images of my brain sundry gives
30:13me a
30:14brutally honest overview of my food choice behavior now the interesting thing is when we just said go
30:19with your gut we didn't see any evidence in your behavior that healthiness mattered to you the only thing
30:25that seemed to drive whether you said yes to it was did you think it was delicious or not but
30:30then as
30:30soon as we said hey think about the healthiness yeah now we saw that certainly tastiness still
30:36mattered but it mattered a lot less and healthiness mattered a lot more so you were much more likely to
30:42say yes to things that you normally wouldn't because you were trying to focus on making healthiness the
30:48thing that you cared about and we can see that also reflected in your brain oh my gosh that is
30:53so cool
30:54so that's you oh weird yeah oh that's so weird it's a bit of a trip when studying food decisions
31:01sendry focuses on three brain regions first the ventral striatum which we think is really important
31:09for things like craving for automatic responses to food maybe even responses more to junk foods rather than
31:17healthy foods another important region is the ventromedial prefrontal cortex this is an area
31:23that's also really important for liking and maybe more for integrating all of the things that you care
31:29about into a single decision so not just taste but also things like healthiness or cost okay the third
31:37region is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex this is an area that we think is really important for what you
31:43might term thoughtful liking so thinking especially about things like healthiness or really trying to
31:51exert self-control or willpower so we've got those three areas which parts of my brain were lighting up
31:57when i was making decisions here what i'm going to show you is what happened in your brain in response
32:02to healthy compared to unhealthy foods the area that stands out is the ventromedial prefrontal cortex
32:09it responds more to foods i like to eat and less to foods i don't but in sendry's experiments this
32:16area
32:16did something pretty interesting the ventromedial prefrontal cortex lucky you actually seemed to show
32:23more sensitivity to healthy foods it acted like it likes healthy foods when you're really trying to
32:30eat huh so you're saying i can kind of try to like healthy foods that's i mean that feels like
32:35really good
32:35news but i also noticed that that area looks like tiny like there's like no activation there would i
32:41want that as big as possible if i want to be able to make better choices certainly i think the
32:44more you
32:45can get this region to respond to healthiness the bigger that area or the more intensely that area
32:50cares about healthiness instead of something like tastiness uh the better sendry says the way to do this
32:57is simple practice practice caring about healthiness i know easier said than done
33:05sendry's findings have potential widespread benefits they could help identify people with brain markers
33:11for dieting success or failure and they could give researchers targets for therapies to prevent or treat
33:18obesity and eating disorders okay note to self ice cream is high in sugar that's so good
33:27that's high and fat too but that's why it's so tasty
33:33we may be able to train our brain to make better food choices but on the flip side when it's
33:39exhausted
33:40scientists have discovered our decision-making abilities are compromised like everyone i start
33:46making choices from the minute i wake up blue
33:51and don't even get me started on which emails texts and calls to prioritize
33:56well exactly yeah 45 new emails little decisions don't usually stress us out but the weight of all
34:06the ones we make throughout the day adds up
34:11and many of us experience decision fatigue
34:16as we become mentally exhausted our brain starts taking energy saving shortcuts which often means
34:21less than ideal decision making and often procrastination but there are solutions
34:31one thing we can do is reduce the number of decisions we make by creating schedules routines and habits
34:38that we stick to if we can i mean i try to exercise the same time every day so i
34:43don't have to think about it i just do it
34:49yeah yeah okay
34:52and i have the same yogurt granola and fruit every day just so i don't have to choose what to
34:57eat
34:59what else stop micromanaging if you can delegate you've got lots of friends and family who want to help you
35:09you don't always need the final say on where to go out to eat
35:14and don't feel you always have to make the best choice especially for something low stakes like
35:20what to have for dinner sometimes good enough is good enough
35:31what would you say is your worst decision oh my god not saving money oh yeah my worst decision i
35:38ever
35:39made was not following my dreams getting into drugs probably self-doubting myself at certain stage of my
35:47life uh because i just felt like oh there are people better people out there than me do you have
35:53um a decision you kind of regret you're like oh i wish i thought differently about that or yeah um
36:00not transitioning sooner that would involve a personal relationship and i won't go into detail
36:15it's an illusion to think we're always solely in control of our decisions sometimes there are
36:20other forces at play and choices are made for us in ways we don't even realize this is called a
36:27smash
36:27burger right it is a smash burger correct is it what like do you make it the way it sounds
36:30like
36:31literally and you're just like wham a little more gentle but yes i've got the perfect experiment to
36:37find out just how in control of our choices we really are it's based on a classic experiment done
36:43at the university of iowa involving of all things ground beef i'm enlisting the help of cody and the
36:52good folks at cheese heads i want to find out if the way choices are presented to us affects what
36:58we
36:59choose these things smell so good while cody tends to the grill i'm gonna do some recruiting
37:07burgers for science three burgers you guys want burgers they came up with like a new recipe for
37:13their burgers the patties are ready and i've got my first group of participants thank you very much
37:23and all right so your job is simple you're just going to enjoy these burgers now one thing that's
37:30important to know is um we want to know how the burgers taste themselves this is a new recipe um
37:35and
37:35so these ones are 70 lean we really want to know what you think about the meat in particular so
37:40you can
37:40eat them with a bun but it's good to take a couple bites at least without the bun and just
37:43the meat
37:53party i don't want friends to influence each other so i'm going to get their thoughts on the patty
37:58individually so you have the 70 lean recipe okay what did you think i enjoyed it it wasn't too greasy
38:06it was super tasty i like that it wasn't greasy i think with lean burgers oftentimes you miss the fat
38:12because fat kind of gives it a nice taste but i didn't miss it consistently people who ate the
38:1770 lean burger used favorable words to describe the patties it wasn't overly greasy okay okay it was
38:24great pretty tasty i'll say that for sure okay uh yeah yeah i just really i really enjoyed it okay
38:31time
38:32for a little switcheroo cody is cooking another batch of burgers using exactly the same recipe and
38:37ingredients the only thing that will change is the way i describe them instead of calling them
38:4270 lean i'm going to call them 30 fat to new groups of eaters there you are thanks man appreciate
38:50it all right i hope you guys are hungry you're gonna take a bite of these burgers these are a
38:56special
38:56recipe um so these ones are 30 fat um and so we just want your feedback on them i mean
39:04it looks pretty good
39:12okay uh you just got a free burger um what words come to mind how would you describe it um
39:26fatty
39:28only because like the first thing when i bit into it it tastes i i did taste fat immediately it
39:33was
39:33different i haven't usually had something like that before okay a little more greasy i would
39:38say the 30 fat burgers weren't as popular with eaters well that rain feels like it came out of
39:44nowhere so i appreciate you hanging out with me still what was the burger like probably chewier than
39:48usual okay a bit less flavorful i still feel like i noticed a difference how would you describe the
39:53taste oh the taste what tastes oh overall just not very pleasant even though the burger patties were
40:01identical the two groups have described them differently so why does this happen well it turns
40:07out that our eaters have fallen victim to something known as choice architecture in other words the
40:12way that options are presented to decision makers that could be something as simple as the way i
40:17describe choices or the order that i put them in or a menu is a great example of choice architecture
40:24and in every example the goal is the same to influence or control the way you make decisions
40:32and choice architecture is everywhere you're probably guilty of using it yourself when you ask someone
40:39where they want to go for dinner do you usually present a couple of options if so you were being
40:46a
40:46choice architect think of the last time you bought something online online retailers are notorious for
40:53using choice architecture to influence your decisions they'll do things like controlling the order that
40:58you see options in or highlighting featured items i mean can you really resist a best seller none of us
41:07is
41:07immune laser pulsing electric water gun purchase choice architecture isn't all bad though it can also be used
41:16for good take organ donation for example research has shown that your decision to donate your organs
41:23is affected hugely by choice architecture so in some countries you're automatically considered an organ
41:29donor by default and if you don't want to donate them then you have to actively opt out but other
41:36countries do it exactly the opposite where you're automatically considered not to be a donor unless you opt in
41:43for many it's a difficult decision most of canada uses the opt-in model
41:50other countries like spain use the opt-out model canada is now ranked 14th in the world for organ donation
41:57and spain number one
42:04i've had an incredible time diving into the world of decision science so you can go ahead and lay down
42:10really carefully thanks to the awesome researchers i hung out with how much does the ball cost it's obvious our
42:17intuition fails us sometimes and taking our time when making a decision can often yield better
42:22results it should be five cents you nailed it and next time i shop i'm watching out for the first
42:28price
42:28i see so i don't get burned by the anchor effect you had to guess how tall would you say
42:33it is 2 000 meters
42:36i've also learned the key to making good choices quickly is practice practice practice
42:45i also got to talk to some really lovely folks on the street who dropped some real wisdom on me
42:50every
42:51choice you make is like an opportunity and like a lot of them butterfly effect out into like larger
42:56things i've learned not to blame other people from the decisions i've made decision i made that i regret
43:04nothing really because i think everything is a lesson sometimes i've decided something and it hasn't
43:10worked the way that i intended it but it turned into something else another adventure um an experience
43:16that i wouldn't otherwise have had i couldn't have said it better myself now should i go down the
43:25boardwalk or do some work decisions decisions or you know i could go to the gym or grab a bite
43:32to eat
43:32oh there's a movie i've been wanting to see i could play my guitar maybe i could try to learn
43:37how to build
43:37the apps
43:38so
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