Are We in Control of Our Own Decisions?
Published in
9 min readSep 3, 2019
Most of us think we make choices because of who we are.
We wake up in the morning and open the closet; we feel we decide what to wear. We open the refrigerator; we feel we decide what to eat.
This seems sensible, but what “feels” right is not necessarily the truth.
We are social creatures, and oftentimes context (rather than personality) plays a big role in our decisions.
Subtle factors around us shape our behavior, but we fail to recognize those influences.
“Incidental stimuli”
In Mindware, social scientist Richard Nisbett lists a few of such what psychologists call “incidental stimuli” — hidden situational ingredients — that secretly shape our behavior:
- Want to get people to put a donation for coffee in the honest box? On a shelf above the coffee urn, place a coconut in a certain orientation.
- Want to persuade someone to believe something by giving them an editorial to read? Make sure the font type is clear and attractive. Messy-looking messages are much less persuasive regardless of the message itself.
- That’s not world-shocking, but if the person reads the editorial in a seafood store or on a wharf, its argument may be rejected — if the person is from a…
