To choose or not to choose?
Next week we will go to the polls again, at least those of us still believe that they have the ability to influence and change.
God forbid, don't see this as a recommendation not to vote, because the exact opposite is true - if you don't vote, you are not really avoiding and certainly not running away from the decision, but giving your voice to the extreme elements, on both sides of the political spectrum.
But before I get to the meaning of the elections at the ballot box, and to what extent that choice really reflects what we want - the frequency of elections in Israel made me reflect on the question of the essence of a choice, how free a person's choice really is (you will be surprised) and what is a choice at all.
choose right
The great philosophers have debated and been troubled for generations on the question of the essence of free will, but I want to address the practical side: how do I know that I am choosing correctly?
How do I know I'm choosing what's really right for me?
That I'm not confused by background noise?
Paula Rosenberg, Election 2020,
More is less
Choice is our ability to make a decision when there are several options.
William Glasser, one of the great decision-making experts, claims that all our choices are made to satisfy five basic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom and fun.
But paradoxically, the greater the abundance of options we have, the harder it is for us to choose, and the less satisfied we may feel.
Difficulty in reaching a choice that serves our interests also stems from thinking biases - that is, there are irrational things that influence our choices.
Abundance or congestion?
When I hear Sheila, my beloved daughter, throwing a complaint into the kitchen air along the lines of "Ugh, I can't find anything to eat", I will rush to the complaint area with concern.
Hunger of a family member is a weak point for me, it is passed down from generation to generation, no one knows when it started, but God forbid someone in my house will go hungry.
Within a minute I am ready for action and enumerate the options in front of her, or in her language, humming: "There is granola, do you want it with yogurt?", "Shall I warm you up from the soup I made yesterday?", "A sandwich with avocado?", "Do you want me to make pasta?", " Thaw your scum?".
With each additional option I present to her, I perceive how my daughter is moving further and further away from the kitchen, or rather - from me.
It seems that with each additional option I present, her desire to eat disappears.
Decision-making researchers call this the "paradox of choice" - the excess of options limits our freedom.
the truth?
Makes sense, because the more impressive the abundance,
In the upcoming elections, 40 lists from 49 parties are competing.
Can any of us even name all these lists?
It is an unreasonable and inefficient load.
35,000 decisions
There are many factors that influence a decision, most of them are not even aware.
The factors we are aware of are only the tip of the iceberg of what drives us.
Most of the reasons are emotional and not rational, compared to what we think.
Cornell University researchers estimate that we make about 35,000 decisions every day.
Only regarding the food we consume, we make about 227 decisions a day.
As the level of responsibility increases, so does the number of choices we make.
The color of the decision
A few years ago I went to a car lot to buy a used car.
The skilled salesman recognized a woman alone and began by asking: "What color do you like?".
I answered: "I like the safest color available, and one that will give proper legroom in the back seat."
You probably already guessed the surprise on his face, but he didn't give up, and certainly didn't throw away all his knowledge about women's choices just because I came in: "And you don't care about the color?".
I should not be proud of the fact that rationality and not color guides me in choosing a car to buy, and yet, at that moment I felt a certain pride.
The decision of that experienced salesman to refer to me according to the female stereotype that exists in his mind was a mistake that cost him a commission.
Too bad.
But a shoe
After boasting and even bragging about my rational decision-making skills, I invite you to continue with me from the car lot to the shoe store, to the best irrational decision-making circus ever seen.
Let's start with the fact that the amount of shoes in my closet is not related to any rational cell in the brain, on the contrary - there is an attraction to buy another pair.
Besides, compared to the importance of comfort and safety in a car and the unimportance of its color, I am able to buy a new pair of shoes just because of a nice print, shape or color.
The comfort of the shoe is important to me, of course, but it will never play an important part in the decision like in the case of the car.
The bacteria that decides
There are scientists who believe that most of our choices are made unconsciously, and that the belief that we choose freely is generally an illusion of the mind.
Research results indicate that our decisions are influenced by our genetics and the variety of different bacteria in our body, including intestinal bacteria.
True.
Now think how amusing it is - a person sits for hours, studies, invests time and money in emotional therapy to improve his judgment and decision-making ability, and in the end, some microscopic bacteria in the gut and some coils of DNA are the ones who actually decide for us, or at least influence these important decisions .
Does this mean we are just marionettes with no freedom of choice?
No.
True, there are no sterile decisions that are not influenced by genetics, education, culture, the influence of media and public opinion leaders, and life experience.
But if I have no influence on the decision I will make, how will I accept responsibility for this decision?
Before the final decision that makes me cast a certain ballot, wear a certain shirt, buy this washing powder and not another, order dessert or give it up - processes happen that combine genetics, bacteria and the subconscious, but not only.
I have to believe that I have a choice, otherwise who am I?
elections?
Not necessarily what you thought, photo: GettyImages
Who is the most handsome candidate in town?
We will return to the elections.
It goes without saying that our choice is not objective, that is - one that weighs the performances of the various parties and candidates in the recent period, and according to their achievements nothing will be decided.
If it were so, we would have government representatives who pass professional competency tests, as in other companies and organizations.
I have read articles and studies on the subject, and no one has an unequivocal answer regarding the factor that most influences our political choice.
In the morning show this week, Leon and I decided to examine the platform of the competing parties, and check what they offer on the issues of education, pensions and housing.
We were amazed to find out that there are parties that have not updated their platform for almost 20 years, and others that don't bother to present any platform at all.
This is an accurate mirror image of the main influencing factors on our election, because it can be assumed that no campaign manager forgot to instruct the party to prepare a platform - he simply explained to them that it was not important enough.
What is important?
Titles that attract attention, that the body language conveys charisma, and of course shoot entertaining videos for Tiktok, because who now has the strength to read a platform with a lot of words in small print?
Give us the candidate for the Legislature dancing to the hit Toman or lip-syncing with a teen star - that will probably get him more votes than planning a solution to the erosion of old age pensions, for example.
In the studies I read, when potential voters were asked what might make them vote for or against a candidate, they emphasized elements of appearance and appearance that convey power and success.
what is the meaning?
that a prestigious and ironed suit may add another mandate, even if the candidate has no credentials in the field.
Would a nice suit be enough in a job interview without references and work experience?
of course not.
While I was writing these words, I received a WhatsApp message from a dear and very smart friend: "Well, say what you will about X, but he is a handsome man" (you are invited to guess who she meant).
Family voting history, community identity and even various stereotypes may also influence our choice more than a candidate's actual achievements.
A significant event before an election, such as a military operation or a war, may bias the choice for one election cycle, according to studies, but most likely in the next election we will return to voting according to the irrelevant indicators I mentioned.
Paula Rosenberg, 2015 election,
More choices - more trouble
Every parent of children knows the statement "only I decide for myself".
Most of us believe that the freedom to choose is a right and a sign of being free and able to express ourselves, but the ability to choose has another side - responsibility for not choosing the second option, renouncing the option that lies in it.
At our house, Leon complained for years that I was usually the one to choose which restaurant we would go to or where we would travel on Shabbat.
Only after years did he agree to admit to me that the fact that I am the one who decides makes it easier for him, because he has trouble containing the self-criticism he feels if his choice was not good enough.
In other words - if we arrive at an unsuccessful hotel, I will be the one to steal the unhappy faces of Leon and the girls, because I chose.
There is a concept that I identified with from the first reading: exhaustion that results from a load of decision-making.
After making many decisions, a person's ability to make more decisions becomes worse.
It has been proven that the more choices we make during the day, each one becomes more difficult for our brain, which is already looking for shortcuts.
Since the phenomenon became recognized by emotional therapists, methods and strategies have been developed to reduce the burden of decisions.
Barack Obama, while president of the United States, decided to wear only gray and blue suits to reduce the number of clothing decisions he had to make. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and late Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs also wore the same outfit Every day for the same reasons. They realized that making decisions causes mental fatigue and spared themselves the need to decide what to wear in order to save the energy needed to make a decision for the critical areas of their work. On this occasion, I invite Zuckerberg to accompany me to the nearest shoe store,
choose not to choose
And yet, I still personally believe that avoiding choice is a form of choice.
We have no option not to choose.
Our ability to choose is both our freedom and our prison.
Avoiding choice is actually choosing to let someone else choose for you.
So don't give your right to others, go vote.
And I have a special message for the politicians: please, make the next elections take place in at least three years, because we are really tired of this decision-making - and science backs us up.
Do it to me: the
elephant, the rider and the path - an act of behavioral change
Two minutes on decision making: It is widely believed that human behavior is the result of rational decision making based on available information.
Behavioral science reveals the powerful role our emotions play in our decision-making process.
This animated video shows the behavior change process using Jonathan Haidt's analogy.
Info@paulanatural.co.il
were we wrong
We will fix it!
If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us