How Do We Decide? Inside the "Frinky" Science of the Mind

I was reading Stanford Business Magazine last month and came across this cool article about Stanford GSB professor Baba Shiv's research on consumer behavior: http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/bmag/sbsm0802/feature-babashiv.html . A great read with some insightful interview clips.

From the article: "So what do you do when there’s no normatively correct answer? Here, you must use a different yardstick: A good decision is one in which the decision maker is happy with the decision and will stay committed to the decision, Shiv says. And that’s where emotions come in: They’re mental shortcuts that help us resolve trade-off conflicts and, unlike the vacillating Vulcans who can’t even decide between a pen or a wallet, happily commit to a decision. 'When you feel a trade-off conflict, it just behooves you to focus on your gut.'"