Is there really, though? One is making your own decision then re-using that cached result, the other is following the herd. (Unless, of course, following the herd is your carefully considered shortcut to shedding cognitive load… which might have some merit!)

Realistically the way most of us will choose is that we go with our defaults most of the time and occasionally invest some time and energy to rethink our defaults actively.

The majority will not stand in front of their wardrobe every day and confront the choice of outfit on a fundamental level each time. Most people decide once and stay with their decisions, and revisit them every now and then when they feel it is not appropriate anymore.

Doing it that way allows us to invest more time than we would have every day into some decision and harvest the fruit of that investigation for a while. The alternative would be to spend more time each day and more importantly: live with the uncertainty if you will find something suitable each day.

Whether the outfit is a lazy black suit or the most avantgarde fashion doesn't really change the way you decide. One can think long and hard and still come up with a boring and tasteless choice.

The point is choices cost energy. Choices we take every day take energy every day.

And as a person who only wears black I can tell you, there are so many nuances of "black" you will need to match... but anyway not everybody cares about their wardrobe in the same detail. I know enough people who would just throw on the next tshirt in the pile, those clean jeans and whatever sneakers are not muddy from the last rain and call it a day. Everybody makes choices from time to time just not all about the same topics.

In the case of outfits there seems to be a deeper psychological mechanism involved. I usually wear black jeans, but also have brown and blue ones. Black is more easily combinable with diffrent colors of shirts. So it is an easy choice in the morning: black jeans + any of my shirts. When I wear the brown shirt, I have to choose a bit more carfully, but it is not really a big deal. However, what I observe is that I fell always a bit uncomfotable after I made my decision to wear brown. It feels a little bit like I am in disguise.

A have similar observation when going to some of my favourite restaurants. Even when I take my time to look through the menu, I very often choose the same dish or from only two or three standard alternatives, although I was actively deliberating to choose something else this time.

It really seems that it is not only the effort of reaching a decision that is behind the default effect, but some unconscious risk-aversion process that does not allow the mind to rest easily in the non-default case.

No way a lifetime is enough to explore the most meaningful possible thing in your life without picking it first. You have to choose without topic to introduce the decision making process, and importance seems a very very good way to prioritize, BUT only if you look at it as the «important for _me_» ones.