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Royston posted this in decision making on July 12th, 2010

Shark week on Discovery Channel Begins on 2nd August

Apparently when the Discovery Channel broadcasts ‘Shark Week’ this year it starts on August the 2nd visits to Florida beaches decline dramatically. Presumably, the Discovery’s programing makes the waters no less safe (I hope). However, after watching a week of kicking legs seen from a shark’s eye perspective from below, the idea of shark attack is refreshed in our minds and we choose not to offer ourselves as

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Royston posted this in decision making on June 30th, 2010

Why men cannot think straight in the presence of an attractive woman

I suppose many read the story the other week about research that showed men who spend even a few minutes in the company of a very attractive woman perform less well in cognitive tests designed to measure brain function. Apparently when men are intensely focused on an attractive female such is the extent that cognitive resources are used up that it is almost impossible to think of anything

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Royston posted this in decision making on September 3rd, 2009

The Buriden's Ass ‘method’ of decision making

The Buriden’s Ass ‘method’ of decision making is used when two or more equally attractive alternatives exist and it is difficult to make a choice. It is of course based on the old fable of Buriden’s Ass, who starved to death because he was tethered halfway between two equally large and succulent piles of

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roymogg posted this in decision making on July 2nd, 2009

People prefer cash back or a free gift to wild discounts

When we make consumer decisions we often ignore the wild discounts and factor them into the price. 50% discounts from a sofa warehouse become the base price we no longer see the ‘full’ price anymore. We prefer getting something for nothing and prospect theory tells us why – even though the economic value may be the same we regard a cash back as a real win. So rather than a $2000 discount on a car a cheque in the post a month later for $2000 is always

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admin posted this in decision making on June 24th, 2009

What makes a good decision maker – the three ingredients

Decision-making is an age old problem that is being compounded today by increasing knowledge, population, complexity, speed and change. The number of decisions being made is increasing as is the pace of change and the number of people in an organization involved in the thousands of day-to-day decisions, from a new product launch to a decision on a new hire that have to be

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Royston posted this in decision making on June 2nd, 2009

Just sleep on it and make better decisions

I suppose many have read about recent research led by a leading expert on the benefits of napping at the University of California that suggests that Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep enhances creative problem-solving. At last now when I get caught sleeping on the job I have the perfect

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Royston posted this in decision making on February 20th, 2009

Bees show the way to making good decisions

I read with interest an article in the Sunday paper this week on the assertion that Bees ‘Decision Making Strategy’ (sic) could help the business world to come to more informed decisions.

Apparently swarms send out ‘scouts’ to assess the quality of a potential site for a hive. The insects then report back to the old hive and do a ‘dance’ to describe the benefits of the site. The study concluded that the swarm then comes to a group decision on the best site by revisiting sites recommended by others until a consensus emerges and all the bees are performing the same ‘dance’. Actually of course there is no need for any kind of rationalisation process – bees returning from many potential sites will do a dance (‘large wiggle’ for lots of food, ‘direction of dance’ to show where it is and ‘length of path of dance’ to show distance from

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