Sometimes its good to give up the drivers seat Baba Shiv

I want to start on us slightly somber

note 2007 five years ago my wife gets

diagnosed with breast cancer stage 2b

now looking back the most harrowing part

of that experience was not just the

hospital visits these are very painful

for my wife understandably so it is not

even the initial shock of knowing that

she had breast cancer there’s 39 years

old

absolutely no history of cancer in her

family the most horrifying and agonizing

part of the whole experience was we were

making decisions after decisions of her

decisions that were being trussed upon

us should it be a mastic to me should it

be a lobectomy should it be a more

aggressive form of treatment given the

Ricoh stage to be with all the

side-effects or should it be a less

aggressive form of treatment and these

were being thrust upon us by the doctors

now you can ask this question why would

the doctors doing this now a simplistic

answer would be the doctors are doing

this because you know they want to

protect themselves legally I think that

is too simplistic

these are well-meaning doctors some of

them have gone on to become very good

friends they probably simply following

the wisdom that has come down the ages

this adage that when you’re making

decisions especially decisions of

importance it’s best to be in charge

it’s best to be in control it’s best to

be in the driver’s seat and we were

certainly in the driver’s seat making

all these decisions so let me tell you

some of you have been there it’s the

most agonizing and harrowing experience

which got me thinking said is there any

validity to this this whole adage that

when you’re making decisions it’s best

to take the driver’s seat be in charge

be in control or are there contexts

where we’re far better off taking the

passenger seat and have someone else

drive for example a trusted financial

advisor could be a trusted doctor

exactly and since I was I study human

decision-making I said I’m going to run

some studies to find some answers and

I’m going to share one of these studies

with you today so imagine that all of

you our participant

in this study I’m going to tell you that

what you’re going to do in this study is

you’re going to drink a cup of tea if

you’re wondering why I’ll tell you why

in a few seconds from now you are going

to solve a series of puzzles and I’m

going to show you examples of these

puzzles in momentarily and the more

puzzles you solve the greater the chance

is that you win some prizes now what do

you have to consume the deep why because

it makes a lot of sense in order to

solve these puzzles effectively if you

think about it your mind needs to be in

two states simultaneously right it needs

to be alert for which caffeine is very

good

simultaneously it needs to be calm not

agitated calm for which chamomile is

very good now comes the between subject

design the a be designed the a/b testing

so what I’m going to do is randomly

assign you to one of two groups so

imagine that there’s an imaginary line

out here so everyone here will be group

a and we’re not here would be group B

now for you folks what I’m going to do

is I’m going to show you these two teas

and I’m asking you I can go ahead and

ask you to choose your team so you can

choose what your tea you want does that

what is your mental state okay I’m going

to chose the caffeinated tea I’m going

to choose the combative she’s going to

be in charge you’re going to be in

control you’re going to be in the

driver’s seat you folks I’m going to

show you these two teas but you don’t

have a choice I’m going to give you one

of these two teas and keep in mind I’m

going to pick one of these two teas at

random for you and you know that so if

you think about it this is an extreme

case scenario because the real world

whenever you are taking the passenger

seat very often the driver is going to

be someone you trust an expert etcetera

so there’s an extreme case scenario now

you’re all going to consume the tea so

imagine that you’re taking the tree now

we’ll wait for you to finish the tea

we’ll give you another five minutes for

the ingredient to have its effects now

you’re going to have 30 minutes to solve

15 puzzles here’s an example of the

puzzle you’re gonna solve anyone in the

audience want to take a stab

whoa okay that’s cool yeah so what we do

if we had you who will get the answer as

far as as a participant we would have

calibrated the difficulty level of the

puzzles to your expertise because we

want these puzzles to be difficult these

are tricky puzzles because your first

instinct is to say chi’lan and then

you’ll have to unstick yourself right so

these have been calibrated to your level

of expertise because we want this to be

difficult and tell you why momentarily

now here’s how the example any one’s

much more difficult yeah Wow okay so

yeah so this is again difficult you’ll

say camber then you have to go make her

and all that and then you can unstuck

yourself okay so you have 30 minutes now

you solve these 15 puzzles now the

question we are asking here is in terms

of the outcome and come to the number of

puzzles solved will you in the driver’s

seat end up solving more puzzles because

you were in control you could decide

which key you would choose or would you

be better off in terms of the number of

puzzles salt and systematically what we

will share across a series of studies is

that you the passengers even though the

tea was picked for you at random will

end up solving more puzzles than you the

drivers will also observe another thing

and that is you folks not here solving

for your puzzles you’re also putting

less juice into the task less effort

you’re less persistent and so on how do

we know that but we have two objective

measures one is what is a time on

average or taking in attempting to solve

these puzzles you will spend less time

compared to you second you have 30

minutes to solve this are you taking the

entire 30 minutes are you giving up

before the 30 minutes elapse you will be

more likely to give up before the 30

minute collapses come at you so you’re

putting in less juice and therefore the

outcome fewer puzzles solved

brings us now do why does this happen

right and under what situations when

would we see this pattern of results

where the passenger is going to show

better more favorable outcomes

to the driver it all has to do with when

you face what I call the income it’s an

acronym that stands for the nature of

the feedback you’re getting after you

made the decision so if you think about

it in this particular puzzle pass it

could happen in investing in the stock

market very volatile out there it could

be in a medical situation the feedback

here is immediate

you know the feedback for they’re

solving the puzzles are not right second

it is negative they remember the deck

was stacked against you in terms of the

difficulty level of these puzzles

now this can happen in the medical

domain for example very early on the

treatment things are negative the

feedback before things become positive

right there happen in the stock market

volatile stock market getting the

negative feedback it is also immediate

and the feedback in all these cases is

concrete it’s not ambiguous you know if

you’re solve the puzzles or not now the

added one apart from this immediacy

negative this concreteness now you have

a sense of agency you were responsible

for your decision so what do you do you

focus on the forgone option you say you

know what I should have chosen the other

team

that casts your decision in doubt

reduces the confidence you have in the

decision it is the confidence you have

in the performance performance in terms

of solving the puzzles and therefore

less juice into the task fewer puzzles

solve less favorable outcomes come back

to you folks and this can happen in the

medical domain if you think about it

right a patient of the driver see for

example unless juice which means you

know you know keeping herself or himself

less physically fit physically active to

hasten the recovery process which is

what is often advocated you probably

wouldn’t do that and therefore there are

times when you’re facing the inka when

the feedback there’s going to be

immediate negative concrete and you have

the sense of agency where you’re far

better off taking the passenger seat and

how someone else drive now I started off

on the somber note I want to finish up

on a more upbeat note it has now been

five years suck in more than five years

and the good news thank god is that is

the cancer is still in remission so it

all ends well but one thing I didn’t

mention was that very early on into her

treatment my wife and I decided that we

will take the passenger seat and that

made so much of a difference in terms of

the peace of mind that came with that we

could focus on her recovery we let the

doctors make all the decisions take the

driver’s seat thank you