It seems that, by default, we tend to think in binary terms—yes, no; on, off. If true, this pulls us toward quickly eliminating all but two (or maybe three) options when faced with a decision. We want clean options from which to choose—do this or don't; don't do that, do this.
Maybe this can be glimpsed from the infant perception of numbers. Small children see things as ones and twos and nothing much more. Anything more than that is simply more than one—one and more than one is the binary categorization. Adding more complexity is not natural to a very young human brain, and maybe it's more pervasive throughout life than typically acknowledged.
When given choices we would rather have fewer, even though we protest otherwise. Fewer choices makes life easier to manage.
We also look and risk and reward this way—I will win or not, I will get hurt or not.
There is a comfort level that exists when we have made a choice between a very small list of options rather than from a huge list of options because a larger list increases the odds of being wrong. Usually only one option is "right," so the odds go down of choosing that option the more choices available to us. Dealing with complex probabilities amongst a large list of choices or outcomes is not a place we like to find ourselves either.
Maybe this can be glimpsed from the infant perception of numbers. Small children see things as ones and twos and nothing much more. Anything more than that is simply more than one—one and more than one is the binary categorization. Adding more complexity is not natural to a very young human brain, and maybe it's more pervasive throughout life than typically acknowledged.
When given choices we would rather have fewer, even though we protest otherwise. Fewer choices makes life easier to manage.
We also look and risk and reward this way—I will win or not, I will get hurt or not.
There is a comfort level that exists when we have made a choice between a very small list of options rather than from a huge list of options because a larger list increases the odds of being wrong. Usually only one option is "right," so the odds go down of choosing that option the more choices available to us. Dealing with complex probabilities amongst a large list of choices or outcomes is not a place we like to find ourselves either.
No comments:
Post a Comment