Decision-Making as a Mental Process
People make decisions constantly, most of which are made unconsciously. With his New York Times bestseller ‘Thinking Fast and Slow,’ Nobel Prize winner Kahneman (2012) introduced a simple but solid concept of decision-making composed of two systems. System one involves rapid, effortless, and automatic answers, whereas system two is slow and effortful. According to Kahneman (2012), most of our decisions are made by system one, even if we might think these decisions are the product of a rational conscious process. Because of this, decision-making is an error-prone process. We can improve our decision-making process through mindfulness practices. With practice, we can become more aware of our thoughts and emotions and how they impact our decision-making.
Perception Biases
Perception is how our brains create meaning from the numerous stimuli we receive from our senses. Only 5% of what our eyes perceive reaches our brains. By processing the data provided by our senses, perception creates something meaningful. Thus, the brain's construction of such meaning will influence decision-making.
Our Unique View of the World
Each person has a unique view of the world. These factors can be strongly influenced by the circumstances in which people find themselves. The rapidly accessible memory patterns may differ from person to person and from moment to moment. Also, values, beliefs, childhood memories, and emotions affect how people choose, decide, and behave.
From a biological perspective, the creation of meaning from what our senses perceive must be assessed as quickly as possible. Mental shortcuts, or heuristics, respond to this primary need and change the course of decision-making. Those perceptual biases that happen when making decisions impact overall behavior. For example, mental shortcuts affect how a person makes decisions and under what circumstances, and perceptual influences distort and cause an error, which has important implications on our decisions.
Metacognition
Metacognition is the awareness of a person’s mental processes, including recognizing biases and decision-making abilities. Metacognition involves recruiting cortical activity in brain areas of self-referential and empathetic processing. Individuals who score higher in ‘metacognitive ability’ exhibit more positive emotions such as joy, love, and the capacity to experience pleasure and are physically healthier. When we realize that our decisions are based on biased cognition and emotions, we can choose to respond differently. Metacognitive awareness can be developed through mindfulness practices by, therefore, cultivating our attention in a self-directed way rather than a reactive way to sudden changes or stressors.
Mindfulness and Decision-making
Mindfulness practices allow us to become aware of the dynamics of thoughts and emotions. As a result, it is very likely that the quality of perception significantly increases as the noise decreases, and the observation is more significant. Practicing mindfulness meditation is simple and can be incorporated into our daily lives.
