Re:The default effect: why we renounce our ability to choose
by quesera on Tuesday November 08, 2022 @02:12PM
(#33522983)
To avoid the spectacle of a coin flip (also, I don't carry coins!), I do the geeky thing:
- Take the first printed word I see
- Sum the letters' ordinal positions ("ramen" == 18+1+13+5+14 == 51)
- Calculate modulus X for one of X choices (51 mod 3 == 0)
- Select option index Y, ordered visually, geographically, temporally, or alphabetically as appropriate, sometimes in reverse to be ornery (["alice", "bob", "eve"][0] == "alice")
...
If I'm with another person who also can't decide, I skip the first two steps by asking them for a random number between 1 and (a random two digit number).
Then I just tell them whatever my secret preference was all along, and we watch the good movie together happily.
Kidding about that last part. All movies suck.
I do this because it removes my agency in the choice.
My conscious story about this is that this comes from attempting to undermine sunk cost and survivor bias; but it could also be an artifact arising from the fact that I don't tend to habituate as much as norms, and therefore I think about "default" decisions more than most people.
Anyway what I get out of this is "life is good" instead of "good choice you made"; "I'd never noticed this difference between these things (or the outcome) before"; or "I really don't like Y as much as X". It also nudges me to contemplate the "both" or "neither" options for a fleeting moment.
People comment on it, for instance strangers in restaurants; people at the grocery store; ordinary people who seem baffled that someone can live their life by flipping a coin.