Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?
John Tierney, The New York Times. Magazine, (August 17 2011).
The short answer for lawyers and judges is: Yes. This occurs when you are working a block of time without sufficient breaks practicing a core function of lawyers—making choices what to say or do next. Preparing for hearings, drafting documents, and participating in remote video proceedings is the daily life of the legal profession. Decision making occurs not only by individuals working alone, but also in groups, such as committees, client counseling, and administrative or judicial panels issuing findings and determinations.
In 2011, two professors studied outcomes in over 1,100 cases decided by a panel of judges on two Israeli parole boards, which consisted of a judge, social worker, and a criminologist. What was surprising is that the grant or denial of parole was correlated with the time of day of the decision! The process of hearing and deciding cases in a serial manner resulted in “decision fatigue,” (coined by journalist, John Tierney), with the board being more likely to deny parole later in the day. The researchers concluded denying parole was simpler than using the energy to make a tougher or more complex decision; keeping the status quo left risk-free options to eliminate the potential that former prisoners might harm others.
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What Is It
Wikipedia states that decision fatigue “refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision making” because of low mental energy or the volume of decisions in the assembly line. Decision fatigue may stem from having to make additional choices tires the brain in such a way that each subsequent choice becomes increasingly taxing. The brain creates shortcuts to conserve energy. When it is depleted, fast and careless choices may occur without much reflective analysis. The brain becomes lazier, impatient, or impulsive. It is easier to do nothing by avoiding change. This is commonly referred to as decision paralysis. There are other variants, including delegating the decision to others or being passive while others decide and going along with those choices.
A related, but not identical concept, was developed by Professor Roy F. Baumeister, a social psychologist at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Fla., called “ego depletion.” The theory derived from many experiments contends that there is a finite store of mental energy for exerting self-control and that the brain is like any muscle which become fatigued with use. It may arise from low glucose levels. Decision fatigue has been hypothesized to be a symptom, or a result of ego depletion.
Prof. Carol S. Dweck of Stanford University, on the other hand, challenges ego depletion theory based upon research from a 2010 study suggesting that “a person’s mindset and personal beliefs about willpower determine how long and how well they’ll be able to work on a tough mental task.”
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The Bad & Ugly
Decision fatigue may derive from unconscious, psychobiological processes, in the context of a persistent cognitive, emotional and decisional loads. It is not a trait or character deficiency or immutable. It comes and goes dependent on the decision making paradigm.
The more decisions made at one “session” reduces the ability to concentrate and critical thinking. Making multiple decisions in a continuous manner is stressful. It can be exhausting and cause people to mentally shut down. The responsive phrase “whatever” comes to mind when people do not want to engage, dialogue, and debate a point—just move on. This is commonly referred to as “defaulting” to a standard option or choices made by others.
My own, and anecdotal, experience is that the shift from paper documents to computer screens is more physically and mentally taxing. There is little opportunity to daydream or pretend to be engaged when you face is plastered on multiple screens without any idea of what participants are looking into your eyes. Staying motionless and stoic are Zoom-skills being learned in a continuous, and likely, mindless, manner. Screens emit lights across a broad spectrum; paper is bland in comparison. I can participate in a full calendar day mediation process or arbitration hearing with the fraction of the energy expended in video conferencing, regardless of the number of screen-breaks. In person, we are able to move more, fidget, turn out heads about, and recover quickly when our minds wander to far-off places or across time. Of course, if you can just blank the screen and mute yourself while superficially engaging, personal energy is conserved. If you are the advocate, or neutral running the meeting, zoning-out while zooming-in is highly problematic.
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