On the face of it, decision making seems like a difficult thing to get your head around. And when you really drill down into what kind of a problem a decision or choice is, the dimensions of the problem quickly spiral. It’s not just the number of factors involved, but their interactions. Problem types, external stimuli, probabilities, mental states, physiology, prior beliefs, and many other elements, are each interwoven into our conscious and subconscious processes of decision making.

Attempting to understand the nuances of this mental soup and how it plays out on the micro level of choice, is to enter the realm of mathematicians, psychologists, and neuroscientists. Fortunately, practical applications of modern psychological research can be employed by anyone, with just a little knowledge of the fundamentals being enough to get started.

Because 90% of what we do is automatic, we sometimes make errors. And these errors may come about in many ways. For system 1, many of these errors come from what Kahneman, calls WYSIATI – “what you see is all there is”…

System 1 thinking processes information very quickly, but only constructs a narrative or decision structure based on what is in front of us in that very moment. This story is constructed from what we feel and perceive in the present, informed by our pre-existing biases and prior experiences. This representation can be incredibly accurate and reliable – since through skill acquisition and learning, complex system 2 thinking can become automated!

Behavioural scientists call these shortcuts heuristics. They are simple, automatic strategies or mental processes, that people use to quickly form judgments, make decisions, and find solutions to complex problems. Natural results of heuristics are bias, which is a cause of error in any system based on generalisation. The growing acknowledgment of these biases has led marketers, behavioural scientists, and policy makers to begin incorporating intentional and behavioural design into their work. In doing so, choice architects exploit our natural tendencies to appeal to simple, habitual bias.

The correct answer might not be what you expect. Using some conscious effort and working back from 48 days, tells us that the lily patch will take 47 days to cover half the pond. And yet many of us will fail this exercise, mistakenly answering 24 on the first try - myself included!

Commercial exploitation of WYSIATI and system 1 bias has existed for a very long time, long before the revelations of dual process theory. Take the simple act of buying a tin of beans – there’s a good reason so many alternative brands will use a Heinz-like colour scheme, font and imagery to market their products. As one scans the tins aisle, we are drawn to what we know. Since what you see is all there is, people will often make a ‘simple’ choice and just pick a tin that looks familiar.

The use of WYSIATI goes a lot further than selling copycat baked beans though! And utilising simple choices is an effective way to encourage a customer along a given route within a customer journey.

We utilise keywords, structure, and primes to help our users make simple choices, which is an effective way to reduce friction. And there will be decision points in your customer journey where you will have the opportunity to influence the customer to give simple, system 1 responses.

What’s key is understanding both the context of the decision and your control over this context – what can a customer see? Does the information you provide ease or complicate the decision? And how complex is the choice to begin with? This context is within your control, and through careful design of these factors, you can trigger a type 1 response, when the scope of the problem is small enough to warrant it.