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Can thinking too much about your choices get in the way of happiness? A new study published in Personality and Social Psychology shows when this may be the case.

Psychologists gave subjects two posters to choose from. In one group, they let individuals choose their favorite poster based on gut instinct, while the other group chose their favorite poster after making a list of reasons on why they liked one poster better.

The researchers found that individuals who chose their favorite poster on gut instinct enjoyed their poster more after a 3 week followup. Meanwhile, the individuals who rationalized their decisions before making them ended up not only enjoying their poster less, but some didn’t even bother hanging it up once they got home.

When we are asked to make reasons for our choices, this can shift our attention toward stimuli that is more easy to verbalize and describe. However, this can also limit our ability to make a choice based on an “emotion” or “feeling” that isn’t so easily put into words.

In the case of a favorite piece of art it’s easy to see why our emotions and feelings would be a good guide for our preferences. If you ever find yourself walking through a museum, you’ll often find yourself liking different pieces over others, but it can be really hard to describe why exactly you think that way.

Making choices in other areas of our lives can work in a similar way. Sometimes “I like it because it makes me feel good” is the only reason you need, and trying to over-think your preferences just makes you second guess your instincts.

Why does it matter if you prefer metal over hip-hop, or scary movies over dramas, or puzzle games over first-person shooters? The point is that you like them, you know you like them, so you engage in those activities because they bring enjoyment to your life.

Sometimes it’s healthy to explain your beliefs, but when it comes down to subjective tastes, you really don’t need to justify yourself to anyone.

We often ruin our enjoyment of simple pleasures in life because we try to rationalize why we like them or we want to prove to ourselves why our tastes are best – but this is a very silly reason to not enjoy something we like. The only thing that should matter is that we like it because we like it. There’s no need to make it any more complicated.



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