When asked, more than one out of three Americans could not conjure up an issue that might help them decide how to vote in this midterm election, a new study by National Public Radio found. But it did not prevent voters from going to the polls. This compromise between getting informed and remaining productive affects decision-making on a daily basis.
"We don't spend the time looking at records and issues," explains Steven Sherman, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Indiana University. Psychologists identify two types of reasoning: rational, with which a person collects as much information as possible to make a decision, and heuristic, with which a person sets up simple rules and makes a choice accordingly. The latter is a much faster and easier approach. "Time may seem far more valuable than taking the time to collect all of the data," says Sherman.
