New research suggests how distancing yourself from a decision may help you make the choice that produces the most benefit for you and others affected.
New research suggests how distancing yourself from a decision may help you make the choice that produces the most benefit for you and others affected.
One key to maximizing benefits for everyone is realizing that occasionally the best decision will benefit you the most, said Paul Stillman, lead author of the study who did this work as a postdoctoral researcher in psychology at The Ohio State University.
“The most efficient decision is the one that is going to maximize the total pie – and that is true whether more goes to you or more goes to someone else,” said Stillman, who is leaving Ohio State to take a similar position at Yale University. “Sometimes it makes the most sense to seem a bit selfish if that is going to maximize overall benefits.”
To make a simple example, it might be more efficient for a software engineer to spend time developing new productivity software rather than fixing a friend’s computer. Yes, the engineer may seem selfish by earning money and leaving his friend with a broken computer, but his choice creates more overall value for himself and the future users of his software.
In the study, Stillman and his colleagues found that people tended to make the most efficient decision – the one that resulted in the most overall value for the group – when they looked at the big picture, or saw the forest for the trees.
Read more at Ohio State University
Image: This is Paul Stillman. (Credit: Ohio State University)
