Role
of Emotion in Decision Making
Decision making process is often faced by a factual and
rational process (Shiv, 2011), where the cognitive undeniable human trait is
neglected. Shiv brings the emotion factor of the human cognitive ability to reality
when it comes to decision making, specifically on the confidence aspect of the
process.
Emotion is present in decision making on the consumer (buyer,
student, cadet, follower and so forth) perspective as it is in the provider (seller,
professor, sergeant, business leader and so on) perspective. No matter for how
long the subject was neglected, neither how it still is condemned by some researchers,
entrepreneurs, traders and the long list of the fact-only-based rational
defendants, it is crucial that emotion is invoked in the decision-making
process for persuasion and confidence purpose (Shiv, 2011). Hence, in order to
have anything like a complete theory of human rationality, we have to
understand what role emotion plays in it (Simon, 1983).
Reflecting on my own
experiences related to emotions and confidence, and can recall two situations, one
in which I was extremely confident of the outcome, and a situation in which I
was less confident of the outcome.
High
Confidence Experience
Ten years ago, I decided to shift my career from the hospitality
field to aviation, and I faced a challenge in this decision-making process. The
general manager of the hotel I was working in that moment, when I asked my
resignation, disapproved my decision. He mentioned that I have been promoted
twice in the period of six months, and the last promotion happened one month
before my resignation. It was a new position in that branch, and a prosper one,
which could open several doors for me in the company and in the field in
general. I was quality inspector, responsible also for customer satisfaction,
service recovery, preparing the hotel for internal and external audits, and analysis
of the rooted issues with proposal of solution to headquarters.
When
he approached me with his disapproval arguments I have had already challenged
myself with the same arguments. I was leaving this position to be a flight
attendant. I got information from people
in the aviation field, I did my researches on where my new career, and challenged
my medium and long goals as a professional, and apart from all this, I really
wanted the shifting. I wanted to have different perspectives from different
background, I wanted to impact on more people’s lives in a daily basis, I had
my personal dreams also of travelling and learning new languages. In the
meeting with him, on the day I received the invitation of a domestic airline to
join the company, he tried to convince me of his reasons, and I ended up
convincing him.
I
had my factual arguments, which made him doubt of his (at least looked like by
his facial expressions), but when I put my emotion on the arguments, and all my
personal reasons also, he had no arguments left and wished me good luck. I
believe that what made the shift on his mentality was the passion and the
confidence I had in my speech on that meeting. there were some information
cascades influencing his decision on that point and I made a conscious
decision, and I knew what I was risking, what I would perhaps miss, and knew
the possibilities waiting for me. I was fully confident at that point and my
attitude reflected as so.
Low
Confidence Experience
Last week I was buying and selling used furniture and house
décor. As I mentioned before in discussions and blog posts, I am a horrible
negotiator when it comes to monetary value. I am not comfortable at bargaining,
and I am not even too attached to money, so I easily influence by persuasive “traders”.
Selling my couches, I advertised based on the second market prices, their
conditions and design. I ignored the utility factor and how much I would spend
to get another sofa set. The price I accepted on the offer was lower that I
believe today that could be. I was not just showing insecurity on the sale, but
I mentioned that I was not sure on the decision of selling, although I had accepted
the deal already on the price. As soon as I trembled, I got a call from the
buyer, setting up the time to pick up the couches, and as insecure I was, just accepted
and went with the flow of the negotiation set by the buyer.
On the same week, as a buyer, I was in doubt of my purchase
on the second-hand home décor. Clearly in doubt, the seller pushed me on the
time argument, stating she had an appointment and didn’t have much time for my
indecision. I spend 10 minutes looking at it, and finally bought them, still
doubting while driving back home.
Learning Outcomes
There are several learning outcomes of these two
experiences, but on the subject matter, my main learning point is that when someone
lack confidence, the other party on the negotiation process can use it as an
opportunity to “win” the deal. I believe the same applies when trying to sell
an idea, to influence a follower, and in any other situation where confidence
plays a crucial role. Emotions reflect in confidence, and confidence is one of
the defining point of the a successful outcome.
References
Shiv, B. (2011). Brain
Research at Stanford: Decision Making. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRKfl4owWKc&feature=youtu.be,
on March 09th, 2019.
Simon. H. (1983). Reason
in Human Affairs. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press
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