Emotions get in the way of making our own choices

Sometimes, without realizing it, a person makes a choice under the influence of people similar to him.

This is the conclusion reached by experts from the Norwegian School of Business.

Every day people face some choice, not knowing which decision will be right. That is why we often seek help from outside.

In addition to the close circle, which can advise on solutions to the problem of interest to us, based on their own experience, there is another "adviser" - the Internet. The vast expanses of the World Wide Web allow a person to get acquainted with people's opinions about a particular product or service.

For example, before booking a room in a hotel, the first thing we will probably do is read reviews from its guests on forums and find out how well the ratings from its guests meet our requirements.

However, there is a big difference between the comments of users. After all, someone was vacationing in a hotel with children and was aimed at receiving family services and entertainment, someone needed peace and quiet, and, for example, a group of young people was looking for entertainment that corresponded to their age and needs.

This influence of other people's opinions on us was examined in his research by Ali Faraj Rad, a PhD candidate at the Norwegian Business School.

The scientist conducted a series of experiments to identify the connection between our tendency to make decisions and the influence of people similar to us on this.

Participants in the experiment were asked to imagine that they needed to book a hotel room and that they needed to do so based on reviews from hotel guests.

The hotel guest profiles were designed to be as similar to and as different from the test participants as possible.

As it turned out, the “guinea pigs” trusted the opinions of people similar to themselves more than those who did not correspond to them.

In the first experiment, one group of participants was asked to make a choice based on feelings and emotions, while the second group relied on a rational, logical approach to choosing a hotel.

The result: those who read reviews and made conclusions based on their feelings tended to favor the opinions of people similar to themselves, while those who relied on logic were not influenced by the similarity to online advisers.

In the next experiment, two groups were asked to imagine that they were going on a trip for different purposes: the first group was going simply for vacation, and the second for work-related reasons.

Result: the “vacationers” group tended to choose a hotel based on the opinions of people on forums, while the “business travelers” group trusted their own opinions more.

Next, one half of the subjects were asked to choose a hotel, taking into account that they had an upcoming trip (in about a week), while the other group was told that their “trip” would take place in a year.

The result: participants who were “preparing” for a trip in the near future were more susceptible to other people’s opinions. Based on this, the researchers concluded that our choices are more dependent on emotions if they concern the near future.

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