This simple brain trick can help you make better decisions, says neuroscientist: ‘It has a huge effect on your performance’

It’s harder to answer questions or solve problems when you’re asked to choose between more than four solutions, research shows. We get lost comparing every option, even if we already know the best answer.

Neuroscientist Paul Glimcher has a simple strategy to cut through the noise and consistently make smart decisions: Instead of trying to pick the best choice, start by picking the worst.

Say someone puts six candy bars in front of you, for example. Your favorite candy might send “a lesser signal” to your brain simply because it’s being “sucked down by just the existence of other candy bars,” Glimcher, a New York University professor, said at the Fast Company Innovation Festival 2024 last month. “If I ask you to take away the worst candy bar, then your next-worst candy bar ... [eventually] you’re getting more and more confident about what the best option is.”

Process of elimination isn’t exactly a new concept — you might have learned about it in elementary school — but it can help you avoid mistakes and improve your accuracy making everyday decisions, Glimcher said.

It might help you avoid picking a restaurant you don’t actually like when a friend sends you a list of ideas for a night out. At work, if you’re having trouble selecting which data points to highlight in a presentation, eliminate the least useful, and continue on.

“We’re just good at the binary choice task — pick your best and eliminate your worst,” Glimcher added. “But when we get into modern circumstances where large companies are producing huge numbers of options for us to choose among ... it has a huge effect on your performance.”

That’s because picking from fewer options can help us make more accurate decisions, said Glimcher. However, it’s worth noting his ongoing research also shows this process marginally increases decision fatigue, he adds in an email to CNBC Make It. The process takes longer, and while the decisions are easier, there are more of them to make.

Experts recommend combatting that fatigue by making decisions earlier in the day when you have more mental energy, and developing routines so that some choices feel like habits, rather than prompting analysis.

Using a similar strategy can help you be more persuasive, too

Once you’re aware of how choice overload can cloud people’s thinking, you might also be better equipped to change someone’s mind during any conversation or debate. The simpler and clearer your argument, the more persuasive it becomes, Niro Sivanathan, an organizational behavior professor at London Business School, told CNBC Make It in November.

“Most people make the forecasting error that in order to win people over, you need to get them lots of data,” he said. “Oftentimes, things fail not in content, but delivery.”

When arguing, instead of including five points on why you’re right, pick the one or two strongest points to make your most effective case. People tend to remember the average persuasiveness of an entire argument, rather than the single smartest point made during it, said Sivanthan.

“Less is more,” he said. “If you have just one key argument, be confident and put that on the table, rather than feeling the need to list many others.”

 

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