Irrational Decisions

There was a story I was listening to about how people do not usually make decisions with a rational process. They specifically sited that people often put a great deal of emphasis on very rare events. This sensitivity toward uncommon occurrences can be seen in everything from the response to 9/11 to the fact that many parents do not want to inoculate their children because they think it could cause autism. The problem with human decision making is that we often choose based on erroneous perceptions and exaggerated concerns. We often make decisions that are not rational.

It is easy to see this behavior in others, but not so easy to recognize it in ourselves. While they were talking about financial decisions effecting retirement and diet decisions effecting your health and weight, the decisions we make run the gambit from trivial to vital. We are often not aware of this short-circuit in our decision making process, meaning that it can go unchecked and can quickly get out of control. The effect they were describing almost made me think that you could say that people are not even able to exercise free will in making their own choices.

Sometimes, when I listen to the debates about health care in this country, I think about how free will sometimes leads to individual and societal excesses and self-destructive behavior. How do you balance a desire to exercise the right of free will versus trying to make people do what you know is "right" or better for their long term health and happiness.

Can you even imagine a life where you made all the right decisions? Always ate exactly what your body needed, only spent money in a way that was not wasteful and maximized your future gains? Never hooked up with the wrong person or treated the right person in a way to drive them away? Took every route when driving that avoided accidents and delays? Stayed home instead of going out and getting into trouble? It's so strange, because I think the average person would like the benefit of having made every decision correctly, but not the boredom of having to be so disciplined. Spontaneity and impulsiveness are treasured by us, even when they lead to missteps, antics, or tragedies.

Around Father's Day I thought about and how you try to keep your children safe and healthy by restricting their impulses and protecting them from an incompletely formed decision making process. I was thinking about how much older I am than the usual father, and the probability that I would not live long enough to see my son get very old. I wonder what my son's feelings would be if he ever considers that I might die early. Would he think that it was his job to keep me healthy? Why not? I remember thinking that I should try to get my parents to quit smoking. Maybe we could form some kind of mutual pact to stay in good health. He needs to learn to hike and run and exercise, and I need to learn to eat right and do the same so I can stay healthy.

Easy to declare such things. Hard to decide to actually do it on a day to day basis.