Too Much Information
March 27, 2011
Welcome to the new blog. I am looking forward to using this space to share with you information and ideas in the popular (and not-so-popular) press on the subconscious mind and how these ideas may relate to hypnosis. I will post at (ir)regular intervals so check back often to see what’s new in the life of my mind.
I am going to start, for those of you who might have missed it, with an article from the March 7, 2011 issue of Newsweek. In the article entitled “I Can’t Think,” Sharon Begley points out that TMI (too much information) leads to poorer choices and more regrettable decisions. She notes that many of our decisions and, particularly, those that require creativity, benefit from letting the issue marinate below the level of conscious awareness. This becomes more difficult when information keeps coming non-stop. In fact, the more information we try to assimilate consciously the worse our decision making becomes. Sometimes we can’t make any decision at all. This was shown convincingly in 2000 by Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper in their study on the effect of an overwhelming number of choices on people’s purchasing decisions. Faced with a display of 24 jams and jellies, people often responded with interest to the display but walked away without buying anything. Faced with a display of 6 choices, they were less interested in the display but bought more jams and jellies. I am reminded here that, despite all the alternatives, the two most popular flavors of ice cream are still vanilla and chocolate.
Begley goes on to summarize a Danish study looking at the effect of a large amount of information on the choice of apartment rentals. The study found that people who apparently were able to shut out much of the information and make their decision unconsciously made better decisions and were happier with their decisions. She concludes by stating that when we shut the emotions (we could substitute “subconscious” here) out of the decision making process we tend to over think the decision and thereby produce worse results on even simple tasks. As a college professor, 35 years of experience have taught me that on multiple choice exams students are far more likely to blow an exam by over thinking the questions than by under thinking them. I tell them: “When the studying is over and you go into the exam, stop thinking and trust yourself to know.” If only more would listen.
In an unintentionally related piece in the same issue of Newsweek, James Atlas reviews David Brooks’ new book The Social Animal. Brooks is best known as a conservative columnist for the New York Times but is now contemplating life’s bigger questions including Love, Character, and Achievement according to the subtitle of the book. According to Atlas, the thesis of the book can be summarized briefly as: “who we are is largely determined by the hidden workings of our unconscious minds.” Brooks comes a bit late to this party but it is nice to know he has finally arrived.