We humans strive to make good decisions. Be it the weekly bulk purchase or the question of the right career, partner or place of residence. But how can we be sure that we are making a good decision? Many questions about making a good decision can be simplified using game theory.

Game theory is a mathematical theory in which decision-making situations are simulated. As a rule, there are several participants who interact with each other. Game theory attempts to derive rational decision-making behavior in social conflict situations from the simplified model.

The results of neuroscientific decision-making studies show that the influence of social aspects on games cannot be overestimated. We behave as if we are polarized towards reciprocal long-term relationships. Reward centers are activated when we are cooperative and generous. Brain areas that control negative stimuli such as disgust are activated when we encounter selfish behavior.

These neuronal circuits seem to be programmed to produce a certain social behavior, namely:

avoid inequalities as far as possible,
to promote the principle of reciprocity
to press for punishment of all those who gain an advantage at the expense of others

In repeated games, reputation becomes an extremely important factor. Actions with a cooperative person are always more rewarding. It is therefore more likely to cooperate with people who do not have a reputation for being stingy or selfish.

Table of contents

How our brain makes a good decision meets

Neuroeconomics is a discipline that combines neuroscience and economics. Neuroscientific methods are used to investigate brain activity in certain decision-making situations (Sanfey 2007). The results of this still young and exciting science provide illuminating insights into human decision-making processes. This results in the following insight:

The part of your brain that calculates the probability of a decision operates separately from the part that calculates how happy that decision will make you.

Let's start with the benefits. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter (a biochemical messenger) that is released when you receive a reward or are in a phase of anticipation of a reward. Even criteria associated with a reward trigger the release of dopamine. Neurons that release dopamine are found in four areas of the brain:

the nucleus accumbens
the area tegmentalis ventralis (ventral tegmental area, VTA)
the striatum
the frontal cortex

These areas are considered our brain's reward system. Anything that gives us pleasure and joy (whether it's listening to our favorite music or seeing a beautiful face) activates this system. These circuits enable our brain to encode and remember the circumstances that gave us pleasure so that we can repeat this behavior in the future and recall the reward. When these circuits are activated, you could say that the neural signatures for reward processing are in full swing.

Regardless of whether you receive a reward or make a decision that you believe will bring you a reward, the same areas are always activated (Breiter et al. 2001; O'Doherty et al. 2002).

Moral judgment - How we distinguish right from wrong distinguish

In 1978, the philosopher Philippa Foot first presented the following thought experiment on a moral dilemma, known as „Trolley problem“ is known:

A streetcar has gone out of control and is threatening to run over five people who have been chained to the tracks by an insane philosopher. Fortunately, you can move a switch to divert the streetcar to another track and avert the disaster. Unfortunately, there is also another person chained to the tracks. What do you do? Would you move the switch or would you do nothing? Most of the respondents would move the switch and sacrifice one person to save five others. That seems right to them.

But let us now consider the following variant of the trolley problem presented by Judith Jarvis Thomson (1985):

An out-of-control streetcar rolls onto five people. You yourself are standing on a bridge under which the streetcar is passing and can stop it by throwing a heavy object into its path. Unfortunately, there is nothing to be seen except a very fat man standing right next to you - the only way to stop the streetcar is to push him over the bridge onto the tracks and kill him to save five other lives.

Would you do it? What is the right decision for you? In contrast to the standard version, as formulated by Philippa Foot, most respondents now believe that it would be wrong to push the fat man off the bridge - even if it meant sacrificing five lives. As these problems show, our intuition sometimes seems very contradictory when it comes to moral issues, which can also trigger very strong emotional reactions in us and have far-reaching effects on other people's lives.

What is morality for?

Moral issues attract our attention, have been proven to move the brain and trigger strong emotional reactions. One would therefore think that morals and morality fulfill an extremely important function for our entire way of thinking, feeling and acting. With reference to the work of the French philosopher and sociologist Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), Haidt points out that morality fulfills an important social function.

Morale binds and strengthens

A morally good decision has common norms and values that provide rules of behavior and order coexistence, combined with means and measures to punish deviants and/or reward contributors. According to Haidt, however, there are other aspects of morality that have equally deep evolutionary roots. Based on cross-cultural studies, Haidt and Joseph (2008) present The Theory of Moral Foundations, which identifies five psychological foundations for moral judgment, each with its own evolutionary origin.

The five pillars of morality

Care - is rooted in emotional attachment systems, i.e. the need to protect and nurture our offspring. These systems are essential for our ability to empathize with others and feel pain.
Fairness - is reflected in the principle of reciprocity, an altruism based on mutuality. This moral foundation generates thoughts of justice, legal laws and autonomy.
Loyalty (group identification) - stems from our long history as tribal peoples who formed changing coalitions. This is associated with virtues such as patriotism and self-sacrifice for the group; it is „one for all, all for one“.
Authority - stems from our origins as primates with a hierarchical social structure. Virtues such as leadership, followership, submission to lawful authorities and respect for traditions are linked to this.
Purity - is rooted in feelings of disgust and loathing (of contaminated food, for example), which ensure human survival and protect against disease. Religious beliefs and virtues, the desire to tread noble paths and tame carnal desires go hand in hand with this pillar.

From problem-oriented to solution-oriented thinking

„Houston, we have a problem.“ The majority of readers will have heard this sentence at least once. The year is 1970 and NASA has just sent another manned expedition into space with Apollo 13.

It is the seventh manned expedition and the third for which a moon landing is planned. People are now quite used to these expeditions, so hardly anyone watches the mission on TV anymore ... until an oxygen tank explodes, damaging the spaceship and exposing the three astronauts to a life-and-death struggle 330,000 km above the Earth. While the astronauts fight for their survival in the limited time they have left, the heroic crew at NASA's control center in Houston searches for ways to bring the crew home safely using the systems available on board. As we all know from the story (and from a great movie adaptation directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks), they find a solution and the drama comes to a happy ending.

The lesson we learn from the Apollo 13 disaster (as well as from the results of 100 years of problem-oriented research) is this:

Problem solving means searching for knowledge and information

However, this seemingly simple realization has far-reaching consequences, not only in terms of improving solution strategies, but also with regard to automated processes. Nowadays, we regularly rely on automated systems to solve our problems. Automated systems retrieve relevant information for us from the internet, move robotic arms that act as assistants during medical operations or in car manufacturing, and they even trade shares.

The path to a good decision - problem solving in four phases

In 1945 in particular, many new scientific findings were published in the field of problem solving. The Hungarian mathematician Pólya summarized problem-solving processes in four phases (see Duncker K (1935) Zur Psychologie des produktiven Denkens. Springer, Berlin):

Understanding the task: Familiarize yourself with the essential
aspects of the problem clearly. Search your knowledge base for related problems.
Thinking up a plan: Search your knowledge base for information that is relevant to your solution.
appear.
Execute the plan: Implement your solutions.
Review: Reflect under the aspect „What could I have done better?“

Imagine you want to go to the movies and can't find your car keys. Your target state, the goal, is „movie theater“. Your current state is „at home“. The problem: You are in a situation where your target state differs from your initial state. You therefore try everything possible to get to the movies. Perhaps you call a friend to pick you up. Or you walk, provided the weather is nice and the cinema is not too far away.

In the technical language of problem solvers, this is referred to as means or operators that you can use to reduce the difference between the target and initial state. And you know that your problem is only solved when your initial state (sitting in the movie theater) corresponds to your desired target state (sitting in the movie theater). Problem solved! And what if no practical solution to a problem can be found immediately? This is exactly when we use our thinking and creative imagination.

If you are looking for a good decision, you will find them!

According to Duncker, thought processes are set in motion when we are dissatisfied with our initial situation and at the same time have no immediate idea for a solution. The aim of these thought processes is to find out what means (or actions) we can use to get closer to our goal. The process of problem solving can therefore be described as reducing the differences between the given and the target state. The solution strategy derived from this is as follows:

Target state analyze
Initial state analyze
Difference Recognize between initial and target state
Eye-catching differences Gradual reduction through sub-targets

Sources:

Breiter, H. C., Aharon, I., Kahneman, D., Dale, A., & Shizgal, P. (2001). Functional imaging of neural responses to expectancy and experience of monetary gains and losses. Neuron, 30, 619-639.

Duncker, K. (1945). On problem solving. Psychological Monographs, 58, Whole No. 270.

Haidt, J., & Joseph, C. (2008). The moral mind: How five sets of innate intuitions guide the development of many culture-specific virtues, and perhaps even modules. In P. Carruthers, S. Laurence & S. Stich (Eds.), The innate mind Volume 3: Foundations and thefuture (pp. 367-391). New York: Oxford University Press.

Sanfey, A. G. (2007). Social decision-making: Insights from game theory and neuroscience. Science, 318, 598-602.