{"id":24475,"date":"2021-02-24T03:43:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T03:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=24475"},"modified":"2021-02-25T21:18:44","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T21:18:44","slug":"decision-making-experts-explain-how-to-avoid-arguments-over-where-to-get-dinner-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/decision-making-experts-explain-how-to-avoid-arguments-over-where-to-get-dinner-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Decision-making experts explain how to avoid arguments over where to get dinner together"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Peggy Liu<\/a>, University of Pittsburgh<\/a><\/em> and Kate Min<\/a>, Cornell University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Research Brief<\/a> is a short take about interesting academic work.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big idea<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The next time someone asks you where you want to go for dinner, state a clear preference. And if you\u2019re inviting someone out, tell your friend that you don\u2019t like deciding. These are two of the main takeaways from a recent study we conducted on how people make joint decisions<\/a>, offering ways to avoid the indecision and annoyance that can follow questions intended to solicit someone else\u2019s opinion on what to do together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve all experienced this sort of exchange in our lives, in which we ask someone else, \u201cWhat do you want to do?\u201d It could be about food, an evening activity or pretty much any other shared activity. In a paper published late last year in the Journal of Marketing Research, we examined what people expect, want and hope to signal when they ask and answer questions like this. We found there is often a mismatch between what other people say and what the other person wants to hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one study, for example, we approached pairs of people who happened to be walking together on a university campus. We then randomly picked one person to invite the other out to dinner, over text, and asked the friend to select from two specific restaurants. We also asked the participant extending the invitation to tell us whether they\u2019d prefer their friend to respond with the name of a specific restaurant or that either would be fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We found that while many of those on the receiving end said they\u2019d be fine with anything \u2013 even though we learned separately that they had a preference \u2013 the other person almost always wanted their friend to state a clear choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We found the same mismatch again and again in other studies involving deciding on different activities \u2013 such as what movie to see and which museum to visit \u2013 and with different types of participants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why it matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic has heavily curtailed opportunities for dining out and some other activities<\/a>, there\u2019s still no end to the need to make shared decisions with friends, family, co-workers or others about what to do or eat. We found that a failure to state a clear preference when asked can hurt your social life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of our studies, we found that people preferred to spend time with friends who expressed a clear choice when asked a \u201cwhat would you like to do\u201d type question. Although people being asked for their preferences say they believe they are coming across as more likable if they express an openness to anything, the opposite is true \u2013 and can lead to fewer invitations in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the solution to this dilemma doesn\u2019t just depend on the respondent. We found in one of our studies that the person extending the invitation can usually bypass the indecision by simply adding, \u201cI don\u2019t like deciding!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What still isn\u2019t known<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our research focused on relatively minor decisions. But what about more lasting and consequential joint decisions, such as a recurring meal kit delivery subscription, a vacation or even a house? In these cases, do people like it when others express no defined preferences or do the higher stakes lead the person responding to provide a clear desire? The answer to this question is still unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s next<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We are working on new research examining various questions about how people navigate decisions that affect other people in their lives. For example, we are working on examining how people make decisions about whether to initiate social interactions with others and examining the kinds of decisions that people make for themselves versus for others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Insight, in your inbox each day.<\/em> You can get it with The Conversation\u2019s email newsletter<\/a>.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peggy Liu<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Business Administration and Ben L. Fryrear Faculty Fellow, University of Pittsburgh<\/a><\/em> and Kate Min<\/a>, Visiting Scholar of Marketing, Cornell University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peggy Liu, University of Pittsburgh and Kate Min, Cornell University The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea The next time someone asks you where you want to go for dinner, state a clear preference. And if you\u2019re inviting someone out, tell your friend that you don\u2019t like deciding. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":24476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,277],"tags":[2138,3220,6607,4642,9525,5714,2197,7727,2249],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24477,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24475\/revisions\/24477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}