Improving Decision Making Skills in Adults

Decision scientists at Carnegie Mellon University and the Rand Corporation have released a study in the May issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology that indicates that it may be possible for adults to be taught better decision making skills thereby improving the quality of their lives.

The study shows that although decision-making competence is correlated to verbal and non-verbal intelligence, it is still a separate skill and should, therefore, be able to be enhanced independently.

According to Wendi Bruine de Bruine a researcher in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon and the lead author of the study, "Intelligence doesn’t explain everything. Our results suggest that people with good decision-making skills obtain better real-life outcomes, even after controlling for cognitive ability, socio-economic status and other factors. That is good news, because decision-making skills may be taught."

Studying 360 people with diverse backgrounds, Bruine de Bruine and her colleagues had the participants complete seven tasks measuring "Adult Decision Making Competence," in other words, the ability to avoid common decision making errors. Participants also completed a survey that questioned their experiences with controllable life experiences that might indicate poor decision making abilities. Survey questions included those pertaining to relationships (Have you ever been unfaithful to a romantic partner? Have you ever sustained a relationship for more than two years?); finances (Have you ever bounded a check?); personal health (Have you been diagnosed with Type II Diabetes?); social conscience (Have you ever been arrested for drunk driving?). Participants reporting the largest number of negative life experience also showed the least amount of success with decision-making tasks.

While the authors of the study caution that it does not definitively prove that better decision making skills will lead to better life outcomes, it does target the need for further research that examines whether a person’s life experiences improve after they have received decision-making training.

A short version (15 minutes) of the test and a comparison of your score to other participants is available at http://sds.hss.cmu.edu/risk/decision.html.