People are strongly influenced by the emotional state they are in. Later, when thinking back on an event, they may not remember how emotionally charged they were in the moment. This may lead to inconsistent predictions about future behavior. Research by Morewedge (2005), Ariely and…

Imagine you’re scanning music on your smartphone to decide what to listen to next. You’re looking at a list of songs. You decide which song you want, and then you move your finger to touch the name of the song to start it playing. What’s…

Let’s return to Jim, who was looking into buying a new car. He’s debating whether to get a small budget sedan or a larger sport utility vehicle with lots of bells and whistles. Psychologists have had two competing theories—the prototype theory and the exemplar theory—about…

You may want to pay attention to the month, day, and year that you advertise, promote, or recommend certain services or products. There are certain times in the calendar year, as well as certain years in life, when people are more disposed to making decisions…

Josephine is the director of marketing at a genetics company. She loves her job, but it’s very stressful. She’s in charge of a new product launch, and the deadline is approaching. One of her best team members had to take a leave of absence for…

Since the research shows that if it takes a long time to make a decision then people might not make the decision at all, is it possible to change the perception of certainty or the elapsed time to get people out of this loop and…

Why do people seem to make some decisions slowly and but other decisions are made quickly? You might speculate that if the decision is something small and insignificant, like what to order at a restaurant, they will make the decision quickly, but if they’re deciding…

You’ve probably had the experience of having to make a complex decision and getting advice like, “Don’t let your feelings get in the way of making a good decision.” Many people think the best way to make a complex decision is to rule out feelings.…

Let’s say you’re the designer for an online grocery store. You’re designing the product pages for a website or phone app. The people who will be using these product pages shop at the online store regularly. They’re familiar with the products, and they have preferences…