原文：
Decisions,decisions!
A
A widely recognised legend tells us that in Gordium (in what is now Turkey) in thefourth century BC an oxcart was roped to a pole with a complex knot. It wassaid that the first person to untie it would become the king of Asia.Unfortunately, the knot proved impossible to untie. The story continues thatwhen confronted with this problem, rather than deliberating on how to untie theGordian knot. Alexander, the famous ruler of the Greeks in the ancient world,simply took out his sword and cut it in two - then went on to conquer Asia.Ever since, the notion of a ‘Gordian solution’ has referred to theattractiveness of a simple answer to an otherwise intractable problem.
B
Among researchers in the psychology of decision making, however, such solutions havetraditionally held little appeal. In particular, the ‘conflict model’ ofdecision making proposed by psychologists Irving Janis and Leon Mann in their1977 book, Decision Making, argued that a complex decision making process isessential for guarding individuals and groups from the peril of ‘group-think’.Decisions made without thorough canvassing, surveying, weighing, examining andreexamining relevant information and options would be suboptimal and oftendisastrous. One foreign affairs decision made by a well-known US politicalleader in the 1960s is typically held us as an example of the perils ofinadequate thought, whereas his successful handling of a later crisis is citedas an example of the advantages of careful deliberation. However, examinationof these historical events by Peter Suedfield, a psychologist at the Universityof British Columbia, and Roderick Kramer, a psychologist at the StanfordGraduate School of Business, found little difference in the two decision-makingprocesses; both crises required and received complex consideration by thepolitical administration, but later only the second one was deemed to be theeffective.
C
Ingeneral, however, organizational and political science offer little evidencethat complex decisions fare better than simpler ones. In fact, a growing bodyof work suggests that in many situations simple ‘snap’ decisions will be routinelysuperior to more complex ones - an idea that gained widespread public appealwith Malcolm Gladwell’s best-selling book Blink (2005).
D
Anarticle by Ap Dijksterhuis of the University of Amsterdam and his colleagues,‘On Making the Right Choice: the Deliberation-without-attention Effect’, runsvery much in the spirit of Gladwell’s influential text. Its core argument isthat to be effective, conscious (deliberative) decision making requirescognitive resources. Because increasingly complex decisions place increasingstrain on those resources, the quality of our decisions declines as theircomplexity increases. In short, complex decisions overrun our cognitive powers.On the other hand, unconscious decision making (what the author refer to as‘deliberation without attention’) requires no cognitive resources, so taskcomplexity does not degrade effectiveness. The seemingly counterintuitive conclusionis that although conscious thought enhances simple decisions, the oppositeholds true for more complex decisions.
E
Dijksterhuisreports four simple but elegant studies supporting this argument. In one,participants assessed the quality of four hypothetical cars by consideringeither four attributes (a simple task) or 12 attributes (a complex task). Amongparticipants who considered four attributes, those who were allowed to engagein undistracted deliberative thought did better at discriminating between thebest and worst cars. Those who were distracted and thus unable to deliberatehad to rely on their unconscious thinking and did less well. The oppositepattern emerged when people considered 12 criteria. In this case, consciousdeliberation led to inferior discrimination and poor decisions.
F
In other study, Dijksterhuis surveyed people shopping for clothes (‘simple’ products)and furniture (‘complex’ products). Compared with those who said they haddeliberated long and hard, shoppers who bought with little consciousdeliberation felt less happy with their simple clothing purchase but happierwith the complex furniture purchases. Deliberation without attention actuallyproduced better results as the decisions became more complex.
G
From there, however, the researchers take a big leap. They write: There is no reasonto assume that the deliberation-without-attention effect does not generalize toother types of choices - political, managerial or otherwise. In such cases, itshould benefit the individual to think consciously about simple matters and todelegate thinking about more complicated matters to the unconscious.
H
This radical inference contradicts standard political and managerial theory butdoubtless comforts those in politics and management who always find the simplesolution to the complex problem an attractive proposition. Indeed, one suspectsmany of our political leaders already embrace this wisdom.
J
Still itis there, in the realms of society and its governance, that the moreproblematic implications of deliberation without attention begin to surface.Variables that can be neatly circumscribed in decisions about shopping loseclarity in a world of group dynamics, social interaction, history and politics.Two pertinent questions arise. First, what counts as a complex decision? Andsecond, what counts as a good outcome?
J
Associal psychologist Kurt Lewin (1890 - 1947) noted, a ‘good’ decision thatnobody respects is actually bad. His classic studies of decision making showedthat participating in deliberative processes makes people more likely to abideby the results. The issue here is that when political decision makers makemistakes, it is their politics, or the relation between their politics and ourown, rather than psychology which is at fault.
K
Gladwell’s book and Dijksterhuis’s paper are invaluable in pointing out the limitations ofthe conventional wisdom that decision quality rises with decision-makingcomplexity. But this work still tempts us to believe that decision making issimply a matter of psychology, rather than also a question of politics,ideology and group membership. Avoiding social considerations in a search forgeneral appeal can take us away from enlightenment rather than toward it.
27-31题为单选题
27. The legend of the Gordian knot is used to ilutrate the idea that
A.anyone can solve a dffcultt problem
B.dificult problems can have easy solutions
C. the solution to any problem requires a lot of thought
D.people who can solve complex problems make good leaders
28. The'onflit model' of decision making proposed by Jams and Mann requires that
A.opposing poltical parties be involved
B. allim portant facts be considered
C，people be encouraged to have dffrent ideas
D.previous similar situations be thoroughly examined
29.According to recent thinking reinforced by Malcolm Gladwell, the best decisions
A.involve consultation
B.involve complex thought
C. aremade very quickly
D. arethe most attractive option
30.Dijksterhuis and his collagues claim in their article that
A. ourcognitive resources improve as tasks become more complex
B.conscious decision making is negative affected by task complexity
C.unconscious decision making is a popular approach
D.deliberation without attention defines the way we make decisions
31.Dijksterhuis's car study found that, in simple tasks, participants
A. wereinvolved in lengthy discussions
B. foundit impossible to make decisions quickly
C. wereunable to dfferentiate between the options
D. couldmake a better choice when allowed to concentrate
32-35题为摘要填空题
Djksterhuis' s shopping study and its conclusions
Usingclothing and fumiture a examples of diferent types of purchases, Dijksterhuisquestioned shoppers on their stisfaction with what they had bought. People whospent 32 A fime buying
simpleclothing items we are more satisfied than those who had not. However, whenbuying furniture, shoppers made 33.D purchasing decisions if they didn't thinktoo hard. From this, the
researchersconcluded that in other choices, perhaps more important than shopping .34 Gdecisions are best made by the unconscious. The writer comments thatDjksterhuis ' s finding is apparently
35 B_but nonetheless true .
选项:
A. more
B.counterintuitive
C simple
D.better
Econscious
F.obvious
G.complex
H. less
I. worse
36-40为判断题
36.Dijksterhuis”s findings agree with existing pltical and management theories .NO
37. Somepolitical leaders seem to use deliberation without attention when makingcomplex decisions. Not Given
38. Allpolitical decisions are complex ones . Not Given
39. Wejudge political leaders according to our own political beliefs YES
40.Social considerations must be taken into account for any examination ofdecision making to prove useful . YES
