Role of automatic, conscious, and unconscious thought processes in complex decision making

Abstract

A complex decision is any decision which includes choosing among options with numerous describing attributes. Certain decisions are fast, often guided with automatic processes of thought, while other decisions are made much slower with careful examination of all the factors. These processes can have a significant impact on the quality of decision making. The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of automatic, conscious and unconscious thought processes in the context of decision making. Participants were psychology students aged between 19 to 28 years. First experiment investigated the role of three different thought processes on choosing a subjectively best option, as well as TTB heuristic option. The second experiment investigated metacognitive aspects of decision making, precisely, to determine the differences in feeling of rightness (FOR) as well as the tendency to change the decision, depending on the activated thought processes. Different thought processes determined the choice of the subjectively best option. In the conscious thought condition, participants chose the subjectively best option more often than in the automatic or unconscious thought condition. However, there was no difference between conditions in choosing the TTB heuristic option. The feeling of rightness was significantly higher in conscious thought condition than in automatic or unconscious thought condition, but the two latter conditions did not differ in the judgment of feeling of rightness nor did they differ in the tendency to change the decision.