I want to start on us slightly somber
note 2007 five years ago my wife gets
diagnosed with breast cancer stage 2b
now looking back the most harrowing part
of that experience was not just the
hospital visits these are very painful
for my wife understandably so it is not
even the initial shock of knowing that
she had breast cancer there's 39 years
old
absolutely no history of cancer in her
family the most horrifying and agonizing
part of the whole experience was we were
making decisions after decisions of her
decisions that were being trussed upon
us should it be a mastic to me should it
be a lobectomy should it be a more
aggressive form of treatment given the
Ricoh stage to be with all the
side-effects or should it be a less
aggressive form of treatment and these
were being thrust upon us by the doctors
now you can ask this question why would
the doctors doing this now a simplistic
answer would be the doctors are doing
this because you know they want to
protect themselves legally I think that
is too simplistic
these are well-meaning doctors some of
them have gone on to become very good
friends they probably simply following
the wisdom that has come down the ages
this adage that when you're making
decisions especially decisions of
importance it's best to be in charge
it's best to be in control it's best to
be in the driver's seat and we were
certainly in the driver's seat making
all these decisions so let me tell you
some of you have been there it's the
most agonizing and harrowing experience
which got me thinking said is there any
validity to this this whole adage that
when you're making decisions it's best
to take the driver's seat be in charge
be in control or are there contexts
where we're far better off taking the
passenger seat and have someone else
drive for example a trusted financial
advisor could be a trusted doctor
exactly and since I was I study human
decision-making I said I'm going to run
some studies to find some answers and
I'm going to share one of these studies
with you today so imagine that all of
you our participant
in this study I'm going to tell you that
what you're going to do in this study is
you're going to drink a cup of tea if
you're wondering why I'll tell you why
in a few seconds from now you are going
to solve a series of puzzles and I'm
going to show you examples of these
puzzles in momentarily and the more
puzzles you solve the greater the chance
is that you win some prizes now what do
you have to consume the deep why because
it makes a lot of sense in order to
solve these puzzles effectively if you
think about it your mind needs to be in
two states simultaneously right it needs
to be alert for which caffeine is very
good
simultaneously it needs to be calm not
agitated calm for which chamomile is
very good now comes the between subject
design the a be designed the a/b testing
so what I'm going to do is randomly
assign you to one of two groups so
imagine that there's an imaginary line
out here so everyone here will be group
a and we're not here would be group B
now for you folks what I'm going to do
is I'm going to show you these two teas
and I'm asking you I can go ahead and
ask you to choose your team so you can
choose what your tea you want does that
what is your mental state okay I'm going
to chose the caffeinated tea I'm going
to choose the combative she's going to
be in charge you're going to be in
control you're going to be in the
driver's seat you folks I'm going to
show you these two teas but you don't
have a choice I'm going to give you one
of these two teas and keep in mind I'm
going to pick one of these two teas at
random for you and you know that so if
you think about it this is an extreme
case scenario because the real world
whenever you are taking the passenger
seat very often the driver is going to
be someone you trust an expert etcetera
so there's an extreme case scenario now
you're all going to consume the tea so
imagine that you're taking the tree now
we'll wait for you to finish the tea
we'll give you another five minutes for
the ingredient to have its effects now
you're going to have 30 minutes to solve
15 puzzles here's an example of the
puzzle you're gonna solve anyone in the
audience want to take a stab
whoa okay that's cool yeah so what we do
if we had you who will get the answer as
far as as a participant we would have
calibrated the difficulty level of the
puzzles to your expertise because we
want these puzzles to be difficult these
are tricky puzzles because your first
instinct is to say chi'lan and then
you'll have to unstick yourself right so
these have been calibrated to your level
of expertise because we want this to be
difficult and tell you why momentarily
now here's how the example any one's
much more difficult yeah Wow okay so
yeah so this is again difficult you'll
say camber then you have to go make her
and all that and then you can unstuck
yourself okay so you have 30 minutes now
you solve these 15 puzzles now the
question we are asking here is in terms
of the outcome and come to the number of
puzzles solved will you in the driver's
seat end up solving more puzzles because
you were in control you could decide
which key you would choose or would you
be better off in terms of the number of
puzzles salt and systematically what we
will share across a series of studies is
that you the passengers even though the
tea was picked for you at random will
end up solving more puzzles than you the
drivers will also observe another thing
and that is you folks not here solving
for your puzzles you're also putting
less juice into the task less effort
you're less persistent and so on how do
we know that but we have two objective
measures one is what is a time on
average or taking in attempting to solve
these puzzles you will spend less time
compared to you second you have 30
minutes to solve this are you taking the
entire 30 minutes are you giving up
before the 30 minutes elapse you will be
more likely to give up before the 30
minute collapses come at you so you're
putting in less juice and therefore the
outcome fewer puzzles solved
brings us now do why does this happen
right and under what situations when
would we see this pattern of results
where the passenger is going to show
better more favorable outcomes
to the driver it all has to do with when
you face what I call the income it's an
acronym that stands for the nature of
the feedback you're getting after you
made the decision so if you think about
it in this particular puzzle pass it
could happen in investing in the stock
market very volatile out there it could
be in a medical situation the feedback
here is immediate
you know the feedback for they're
solving the puzzles are not right second
it is negative they remember the deck
was stacked against you in terms of the
difficulty level of these puzzles
now this can happen in the medical
domain for example very early on the
treatment things are negative the
feedback before things become positive
right there happen in the stock market
volatile stock market getting the
negative feedback it is also immediate
and the feedback in all these cases is
concrete it's not ambiguous you know if
you're solve the puzzles or not now the
added one apart from this immediacy
negative this concreteness now you have
a sense of agency you were responsible
for your decision so what do you do you
focus on the forgone option you say you
know what I should have chosen the other
team
that casts your decision in doubt
reduces the confidence you have in the
decision it is the confidence you have
in the performance performance in terms
of solving the puzzles and therefore
less juice into the task fewer puzzles
solve less favorable outcomes come back
to you folks and this can happen in the
medical domain if you think about it
right a patient of the driver see for
example unless juice which means you
know you know keeping herself or himself
less physically fit physically active to
hasten the recovery process which is
what is often advocated you probably
wouldn't do that and therefore there are
times when you're facing the inka when
the feedback there's going to be
immediate negative concrete and you have
the sense of agency where you're far
better off taking the passenger seat and
how someone else drive now I started off
on the somber note I want to finish up
on a more upbeat note it has now been
five years suck in more than five years
and the good news thank god is that is
the cancer is still in remission so it
all ends well but one thing I didn't
mention was that very early on into her
treatment my wife and I decided that we
will take the passenger seat and that
made so much of a difference in terms of
the peace of mind that came with that we
could focus on her recovery we let the
doctors make all the decisions take the
driver's seat thank you