WHAT’S NEW image
WHAT’S NEW image
WHAT’S NEW image
Heuristic Hacks

Improve your heuristic decision making

View All

Open Option Bias

Humans prefer to keep options open whenever possible, which makes them feel more in control. Sometimes they wait for options to accumulate, so they have the affordance to choose the best. However, that may sometimes turn into an illusion of control over your decision space and reduce the likelihood of making efficient decisions.

How to hack Open Option Bias?

Open Option Bias affects many long-term and short-term decisions - dating choices, college admissions, housing choices, visiting restaurant cluster streets vs. independent restaurants, going to the mall vs. a single store, potential weekend plans, etc. As long as there are many options, we feel in control and gain a sense of “prospective” satisfaction associated with the potential of making the best decisions.

  • Using Open Option Bias can have benefits like choosing good options and feeling satisfied with the decision after eliminating lesser options.
  • Fighting Open Option Bias can have benefits like preventing indecision, resource wastage, and confusion.

Because Open Option Bias provides psychological comfort such as feeling in control of your choices, with all the selection and elimination processes you may use, you may take it too far and hold-off important decisions for wanting to see more options.

The simplest, all-purpose way to hack Open Option Bias is by asking yourself a few questions:

  1. Will more options really give me something significantly better than my current choices?
  2. Do any of my current options work for me?
  3. What am I trying to gain by looking at more options?

How to avoid wasting time and losing the good stuff while selecting rental houses

If you are relocating to a new place, you may have no option but to make fast decisions about your rental arrangements. Suppose you find a house you like after checking out 3. Do you have the luxury of checking all your potential, unseen options before selecting the one? In some localities, rental decisions are made on the fly within minutes. Eventually, if you check out more options to compare, you may have lost all previous alternatives you were using as a benchmark to figure out your best option. The saying, “you snooze, you lose,” captures the consequences of using Open Option Bias in a competitive area. To avoid feeling that you are forced to choose a house, set strict criteria and make certain criteria negotiable based on other factors like transport, supermarkets, typical weather, office hours, etc. With strict criteria, you’ll already feel in control of your decisions, so you won’t need to subconsciously invoke Open Option Bias to feel in control.

Do you think that you relate to this hacks? Learn how to bias this and more

How to reduce procrastination by limiting your thoughts

The idea of keeping options open is sound in itself because it allows you to optimize and choose the best option with fewer constraints. However, when time is limited, and many other decisions depend on a primary decision, it’s more useful to choose something than explore every option possible. Any delay caused by waiting for more options can have negative consequences. So, if you are procrastinating a purchase or a decision, perhaps you can select the best based on your minimum requirements or other heuristics like listening to your gutfeel or choosing the best from your top 3 alternatives. Any further effort to find more options might waste your time.

How to plan a productive day without feeling like a productivity puppet

According to common wisdom and research, human productivity occurs best when it isn’t a 24/7 routine of finishing tasks one at a time. Breaks and entertainment can impact overall productivity. However, that may not be enough. You can use Open Option Bias to create “open blocks of time” in a day where you can choose whatever you want and “fixed blocks of time” where you complete dedicated/routine tasks. A mix of fixed and open blocks will not threaten your autonomy, which can be a problem when you work on specific tasks or respond to others’ appointments all day long.

Hack Open Option Bias NOW!

Learn about more heuristics and hacks: