The Erosion of Capacity and Decision-Making

According to the definition of conventional economics, economic man is an individual who always seeks choices that maximize his utility. It is assumed that he possesses complete information, an unlimited mind, and a high capacity for processing information, but does man behave this way in the real world? Behavioral economics, as an interdisciplinary science, identifies errors in decision-making due to which the individual cannot make an optimal choice. In this text, we try to address one of the obstacles that prevents man from thinking rationally and choosing the best option. The erosion of willpower capacity, or ego depletion, is a well-known phenomenon in the field of psychology in which the brain, due to performing various mental tasks, including decision-making or self-control to prevent the expression of certain emotions and actions, faces a reduction in its energy source, and the individual's self-control diminishes. Self-control is a mental process essential for regulating an individual's behavior to achieve specific goals. This ability to control oneself is termed willpower. Willpower is like a muscle that gets tired if you use it too much.

In this context, a psychologist named Roy Baumeister, along with his colleagues, conducted an interesting experiment. In this experiment, the participants were divided into three groups. In the room chosen as the test location, chocolate cakes had been baked, such that their aroma filled the room. For two groups of participants present in the room, two types of edibles were placed on the table: a plate containing chocolate cake and a plate containing red and white radishes. The third group, considered the control group, was not present in this room and only participated in the puzzle-solving test phase. Each group of participants in the room was asked to consume only one of the edibles. After a few minutes, they were asked to solve a puzzle that had been designed. In this experiment, the average time to give up solving the puzzle was measured. The group that had consumed radishes gave up solving the puzzle faster than the group that had consumed cake and the control group; this was because, by expending energy to refrain from eating the cake, they had lost a portion of their mental energy and had become mentally fatigued.

Choosing, like self-control to avoid being tempted to do something we are forbidden from, requires mental effort and energy expenditure. Since the brain's capacity is limited, numerous decisions lead to a phenomenon called decision fatigue, and this will result in the deterioration of the individual's subsequent decisions throughout the day. We all make many decisions every day. Some decisions are small, such as what to eat for breakfast today, what to wear, etc. Some decisions are large, such as what field to choose for study, where to buy a house, etc. People are usually unaware that their brain's energy source is limited, and many decisions, however small, over the course of a day can cause mental fatigue and reduced self-control. Typically, when fatigued, people make decisions in one of two ways: either they make no choice, or they choose recklessly.

Decision fatigue has also been observed in judges when reviewing court cases and in physicians when prescribing antibiotics. A study conducted to answer the question of whether only laws and facts influence judicial decisions showed that other factors, such as those related to psychology, can also affect judicial decisions. In the case of judges, over the course of a day and with the passage of time, the chance that a case will be granted parole and the outcome will favor the prisoner decreases. Or in the case of physicians, the likelihood of prescribing antibiotics in unnecessary cases increases over time. Since physicians make numerous decisions daily about the type of treatment for patients, they suffer from mental energy depletion, and their ability to resist inappropriate decisions diminishes throughout the day. According to a study, it was shown that as time passes in a day, the rate of inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions by physicians increases. Mechanisms for the erosion of willpower have been proposed, some of which are at the biological level. Researchers have shown that mental activity in a part of the brain (anterior cingulate cortex) associated with cognition is reduced in individuals who have experienced willpower erosion. Other evidence suggests that this decline in willpower is due to reduced fuel supply to the brain. The brain is one of the organs with high energy consumption, constantly nourished by a certain amount of glucose. Researchers have hypothesized that when the brain exerts self-control activities, its rate of glucose consumption exceeds the rate at which consumed glucose is replenished. Now, if we look at our own lives, we will see that we too are somewhat engaged with this phenomenon. Therefore, it is recommended that important decisions be made early in the day, when the mind's energy reservoir has not yet significantly diminished.

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The Erosion of Capacity and Decision-Making

Author: Mina Dehghani (Researcher in the field of Behavioral Economics - PhD candidate in Pharmacoeconomics and Pharmaceutical Management, Tehran University of Medical Sciences)

Source: Donya-e-Eqtesad

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