The Hidden Complexity Behind Seemingly Binary Decisions.
Hint: It Is All About The Threshold
I would like to lay down some fundamental principles for you that we can refer back to in future articles. When you understand the steps in a process, you can then begin looking for ways to shape, modify and optimize them toward a specific goal. We are going to start today with basic decision making. As you read through, see if you can spot areas where an intervention could be inserted to steer the process.
It starts with the spark. An idea pops into your head and you become aware of it.
“I should go for a walk.”
“I could send that email now”
“Maybe I should just keep my mouth shut and not say anything”
Ideas like this are not deliberate. They emerge from the electrical chaos of the brain cued by things like memory, habit, your emotional state or environmental cues (time of day, hunger pangs, someone’s tone of voice). You did not decide to have this idea. It just arrived.
The next step (instantly and unconsciously) is that your brain emotionally tags the idea and assigns meaning to it. Is it good or bad? Is it safe or risky? Is it even worth the effort? Your past experiences are consulted and weighed in, including learned skills and competence as well as aversive and traumatic experiences. The idea is then tagged with feelings such as anticipation, dread, guilt or curiosity. This is like the brain’s version of using hashtags. Sometimes at this stage, the body may also react with micro expressions in the face and subtle changes in body posture or tension. The original idea at this point now has valence. It is either attractive, aversive or neutral.
The third step is a cost/benefit scan (which is mostly unconscious). How much effort is required? How much time will it take? What will it cost emotionally? Is there a possible reward? Are there negative social consequences? The results of this scan will be served up as a “gut feeling.” An example of this might be the “ugh” feeling when you see your cell phone ringing and it is that excessively chatty friend who never lets you get a word in. It is important to mention here that two people can evaluate the same action differently because their internal “weights” are different.
At the fourth stage, I now want to introduce the idea of the threshold – the line that must be crossed in order for action to occur. This is the binary part of the process. If motivation, urgency and emotional pull exceed the force of internal resistance, fear and fatigue, then the action happens. If not, then the result is inaction (which is also a decision). An important aspect to point out is that the threshold itself is not fixed. When you are tired, depressed, ashamed or overwhelmed, the threshold rises. When you are excited, confident and feel supported, the threshold drops.
The fifth stage is the deployment of the conscious narrative. This is the story that your mind uses to explain what just happened. Your mind may tell you “I decided it wasn’t worth it” or “I thought it through and made my decision”, but in reality, your brain already held a vote and this is just the press release. The story was not the cause of the action. My readers who consider themselves strictly rational may find this hard to believe.
The final stage is the execution (or deferral) phase. If the threshold is crossed, motor systems become engaged, attention narrows to the task and you begin action. If not, the idea fades or gets postponed, but can be revisited if there is new emotional weight to push it forward.
What I have laid out for you is a model of how decision-making works and the steps that are involved. As I mentioned above, the process is largely unconscious and automatic. Most of us are taught implicitly that if we care enough or have enough will power, we should be able to accomplish whatever we want or need to do. We are taught to think of motivation as a personal trait or a moral quality. The brain simply does not work this way. The brain works more like a voting system with a threshold for action. Dozens of small signals vote “yes” or “no,” and whether action happens depends not only on the votes, but also on where the threshold is set that day. When people “can’t make themselves” do something, it’s rarely because they don’t care. It’s because the combined inputs never crossed the needed threshold. We will come back to this topic in future articles when we get into threshold shaping and what can be done to deliberately modify inputs in order to reach a goal. If you found this useful, you can subscribe and continue this journey with me.