Would I buy the $400 television within my budget or would I splurge on the $500 deluxe model that somehow helped me understand plant biology in a new, more intimate way?

Though every cone and rod in my eyeballs begged me to buy the better one, my more sensible instinct kicked in. “Your budget is $400, remember?” Sighing, I bought the crappy model and braced for a life of TV mediocrity.

But then, a strange thing happened. When I fired up the new set at home, it looked fine. Better than fine in fact. It looked great! I couldn’t figure out why I even wanted the pricier model in the first place.

Why the change of heart?

Among a host of brain biases, I fell victim to distinction bias — a tendency to over-value the effect of small quantitative differences when comparing options. In the store, I was in comparison mode, evaluating the TVs side by side; hypersensitive to the smallest differences. But at home, there was just one TV and no alternatives to compare against. It was glorious in its singularity.

Choose for Chocolate

Let’s do a little experiment together. I want you to pick between two options.

Option 1: I’ll give you one Hershey Kiss if you think of a time in your life when you experienced personal success.

Or…

Option 2: I’ll give you three Hershey Kisses if you think of a time in your life when you experienced personal failure.

Which would you choose?

In studies, about two-thirds of people opt for more chocolate. Clearly, more is better, right? Not always.

Despite the fact people chose freely and presumably wanted to maximize their happiness, those who opted to think of a negative memory for more chocolate were significantly less happy than those who chose a positive memory for less chocolate.

And, lest you think the effect might be a result of feeling guilty for eating fattening chocolate, the researchers thought about that too. Yet, they found no significant difference between the two groups when it came to feelings about eating the candies. So what gives?

Your Brain Isn’t That Smart

Psychologists believe we are in two different modes when we compare options versus when we experience them. When making a choice, we are in comparison mode — sensitive to small differences between options, like me choosing a television. But when we live out our decisions, we are in experience mode — there are no other options to compare our experience to.

In comparison mode, we’re pretty good at deciding between qualitative differences. For example, we know that an interesting job is better than a boring one or that being able to walk to work is better than having to suffer driving in rush hour traffic.

When I asked you to pick between Option 1 or 2, you likely could have told me recalling a personal success would feel better than recalling a failure. So why do people choose Option 2? For more chocolates of course! And that’s where things get sticky.

Humans are not very good at predicting how quantitative differences, those involving numbers, affect happiness. In the experiment, people assumed three Hershey Kisses worth of chocolate would bring them three times the happiness. But it didn’t.

We make the same mistake in real life all the time. We think a 1,200 square foot home will make us happier than a 1,000 square foot home. We think earning $70,000 a year will make us happier than earning $60,000 a year.

We often place higher emphasis on inconsequential quantitative differences and pick an option that won’t actually maximize our happiness.

How to Outsmart Your Brain

1. Don’t Compare Options Side by Side

In comparison mode, we end up spending too much time playing “spot the difference.” This is where we run into trouble and focus too much on inconsequential quantitative differences. To combat this, avoid comparing two options side by side.

What can we do instead? Evaluate each choice individually and on their own merit.

If you are buying a house, don’t compare one with another. Spend time at each house focusing only on what you like and dislike about that house to form a holistic impression of it. That includes everything from the size of the house, your commute, how close your friends live, it’s warmth and coziness all the way down to how weird the neighbours are.

Now, choose the house that registers the best overall holistic experience.

2. Know Your “Must-Haves” Before You Look