Research shows that 'sleep' is important for making rational choices

Many people have heard the advice, 'When making an important decision, it's better to wait a night and think about it first before making a decision.' In fact, a new paper published by a research team at Duke University showed that 'deciding after sleeping overnight can lead to more rational choices than making a decision right away.'

First impressions or good endings? Preferences depend on when you ask.

https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fxge0001638

Yet Another Reason Why You Should Sleep on it Before Making an Important Decision | Duke Today
https://today.duke.edu/2024/09/science-of-first-impressions

'Sleeping on it' is the best way to make a rational decision - Earth.com
https://www.earth.com/news/sleeping-on-it-is-the-best-way-to-make-a-rational-decision/

Alyssa Sinclair, a doctoral student at Duke University and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania at the time of writing, and her team investigated the question: 'Is it better to make a snap decision based on a first impression or to wait a night before making a decision?'

In a series of online experiments, subjects were tasked with choosing the most valuable box to sell at a fictitious garage sale. Most of the items in each box were low-value items, such as an old alarm clock or a potted plant, but some were high-value items, such as a nice lamp or a teddy bear. The boxes were packed from top to bottom, with some boxes containing high-value items near the top, others near the middle or bottom.

Participants were given a cash reward based on the total value of the box they chose, so they had an incentive to choose the box with the highest value. The key point here is that the total value of the 20 items in each box was the same. This means that no matter which box they chose, they would receive the same reward, even though they were not aware of this.

When subjects were given multiple boxes to open and asked to immediately choose which box to put up for sale, they tended to base their decision on the value of the first few items they encountered, rather than the entire contents of the box. Even though the total reward would be the same regardless of which box they chose, they reported being more likely to choose the box with the more valuable items at the top.

'We found that people are strongly influenced by first impressions,' Sinclair said. And participants tended to overestimate the boxes that contained the more valuable items earlier, estimating them to be about 10% more valuable than they actually were.

But participants who were asked to sleep overnight before choosing which box to put up for auction rated boxes with more valuable items at the top and boxes with more valuable items at the bottom equally, and were no longer guided by first impressions. 'They made a more rational choice,' says Sinclair. 'They equally preferred boxes with valuable clusters at the beginning, middle, and end.'

The results of this study suggest that when making important decisions such as 'buying a car or a house,' 'choosing a job,' or 'deciding whether to date someone,' it is better to sleep on your thoughts overnight before making a rational choice.

'After an experience is over, our brains package it in our memories to help us make better choices, and this neat trick happens overnight,' said Alison Adcock , co-author of the study and associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University.