Making Decisions Tires Your Brain

Mar­ket­ing research involv­ing mak­ing choices reveals the brain as a mus­cle: when depleted it comes less effec­tive. Mak­ing choices exhausts what is known as exec­u­tive resources, and “down­stream” deci­sions are affected adversely when we are forced to choose with a fatigued brain. Not only does this explain why I always pick plain yogurt in the refrig­er­a­tor isle, but sug­gests that if we’ve just spent lots of time focus­ing on a par­tic­u­lar task, exer­cis­ing self-control or even if we’ve just made lots of seem­ingly minor choices, then we prob­a­bly shouldn’t try to make a major decision.