The Changing Nature of Decision-Making

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I have a really specific way of picking restaurants.

Every time I plan on going out to eat, whether for a quick stop or fine dining, I follow the same process.

1. Pick the city

2. Search options on Google Maps

3. Filter to restaurants with 4.5 stars or higher

4. Select the restaurant with the greatest number of reviews (100 minimum)

If there are no restaurants in the area with 4.5 or higher stars, I find those with 4.4 stars and repeat.

This helps me quickly ensure I am going to a generally respectable establishment that is well-received by 90%+ of reviewers.

Now, is this the most optimal way of picking the best place to eat?

Not a chance.

There are a lot of elements that go into finding the perfect restaurant, from the ambiance to the wait time to if you are in the particular mood for Korean BBQ or sushi.

But for me, it works.

We all have ways we make decisions that are based on our own set of unique experiences and systems.

While we may come to similar outcomes, how we come to those outcomes differs.

The 21st century has completely reshaped how we make decisions.

Consider if you were trying to decide on a restaurant in the early 90s. No Google. No Yelp. No Uber Eats. The easiest ways were likely word of mouth, special guidebooks, and good old Yellow Pages.

The internet gave everyone access to all of this information with a single click. Suddenly, we had volumes more data to work with to make the most informed choice possible.

The problem with Google and Bing is that their primary objective was only to provide information. Initially, this was great, as it gave people much more access to data than they had previously.

Unfortunately, the sheer amount of information we were given led an entire society into “analysis paralysis”, where we became unable to choose between so many different options.

While some of you may still use Google to find answers to everyday questions (like me), I imagine a non-insignificant number now go to TikTok or other social media sites for answers.

According to MGH, 53% of Millennial TikTok users have visited a restaurant and/or ordered food from it after seeing it on TikTok.

Social media is not only the source we go to for our dinner recs, but how we decide what school to attend, what city to live in, or what political party to affiliate with.

There is a reason for this.

Social media sites today like TikTok or Instagram haven’t just become search engines. They have become recommendation machines.

The information we are fed on these social sites comes carefully curated.

Complex algorithms display posts and videos that are similar to what you may have consumed previously, based on your engagement (i.e. likes, comments, view time).

Thus, the content we are given becomes narrow and focused. The decision to pick one restaurant, political party, or belief, over another, has become much less of a decision and more of a carried-out suggestion.

Furthermore, social media Influencers do exactly what their name implies: influence your actions.

These figures we follow and sometimes even worship (looking at you, T-Swift) not only provide their recommendations for what skincare brand to use or brunch spot you "HAVE to check out”, but also their personal opinions.

Instead of absorbing objective information to come to an independent choice, we look to algorithmic recommendations and influencers to outsource our decision-making.

The recent widespread use of artificial intelligence platforms like ChatGPT or Gemini has taken this drift away from decision-making to a whole other level.

While these platforms might look a lot like search engines, the information they provide and the way they operate is quite different.

The outputs we are given are based on large datasets, where A.I. platforms blend data from varying sources in new ways.

While these platforms cannot “think” as humans can, they are programmed to be able to generate novel results and provide contextualized answers using learned information.

Despite being the most advanced in history, these applications are prone to misinformation and bias. A few weeks ago, Google’s Gemini went viral for all the wrong reasons after producing A.I.-generated images of Black Vikings and Asian Founding Fathers of America.

Using ChatGPT and Gemini in their stage of infancy today as a reliable source is like using Wikipedia in 2012 for your final exam (not the best idea…trust me).

That being said, the improvements these platforms are making seem to be exponential and it won’t be long before their outputs become far less biased and misinformed.

While I think these tools have great use cases from business to personal health, I fear the impact they will have on our ability to make independent decisions.

Our free will is what makes us human.

This unique ability to critically think and choose at our discretion is why our species has come to dominate the planet instead of the millions of other species on Earth.

I worry that we are now blindly outsourcing this decision-making to A.I. applications that may not lead us to the best result.

Our ability to solve complex problems, use foresight, and balance logic and emotion requires us to harness our free will.

When we forgo thinking and deciding in favor of instantaneous recommendations that decide for us, we lay to rest our greatest superpower.

I believe this is a large reason why we as a society have become so prone to groupthink and this “mob mentality” that dominates politics, religion, and culture today.

Social media and A.I. platforms reinforce our preconceived notions while planting new ones.

Technology has become even more pervasive in the micro aspects of our personal and professional lives.

We are delegating our most creative outlets like having meaningful conversations with others and graphic design to chatbots who answer for us and image-generation tools.

If we rely too heavily on these applications, we may lose our ability to think independently.

Technology has enabled us to see, learn, and do more than we ever could in history. The progress being made today on supercomputers to A.I. will continue to transform how we operate in and control the world around us.

Emerging tools like ChatGPT or Gemini will make our lives easier, more informed, and more efficient if we use them intelligently.

My only hope is that we don’t lose our sense of self in the process.

-John Henry

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