With each decision we make, we become increasingly mentally exhausted. This is because our working memory is continually processing new information; the amount of effort we put into processing information is called cognitive load. And as our cognitive load increases, so does decision fatigue. 

But first of all, how do we know if we have decision fatigue? According to Dr. Lisa MacLean, a psychiatrist at Henry Ford Health, someone with decision fatigue may experience tiredness, brain fog, or other symptoms of physical or mental fatigue.¹² Unfortunately, these signs of decision fatigue can also mean we didn’t get enough sleep or we’re under significant stress. Yet if you’re not suffering from lack of sleep or stress, your symptoms may be a sign that you’re simply having too many decisions to make in your life. 

Decision fatigue can cause us to make poor decisions. As we reach mental exhaustion, our brains take illogical shortcuts to aid us in our decision-making. These shortcuts often result in reduced self-control, impulsivity, and reliance on biases, impairing our ability to evaluate long-term outcomes effectively. In extreme cases, the shortcut may involve procrastinating the decision-making task altogether.¹ 

A study of surgeons’ decision-making, for example, found a significant connection between surgeons’ decisions to operate and the order of patient appointments throughout their day.¹⁵ Patients who met with a surgeon towards the end of their shift were 33 percent less likely to be scheduled for an operation compared to those who were seen earlier in the day. The researchers suggested that this pattern is due to decision fatigue, where tired surgeons increasingly depend on heuristics and default to maintaining the status quo. Although other studies have found evidence to the contrary,²⁴ the impact of decision and choice fatigue is an important area of study in healthcare decision-making. 

It goes without saying that a reduced ability to make decisions can have negative consequences across many areas of our lives. While it may not be catastrophic in situations such as choosing what to order off a menu or deciding between two different paint colors, the consequences of decision fatigue can be potentially dangerous in high-stakes environments. Studies have shown that physicians working in emergency departments can experience mental exhaustion as a result of the continuous cognitive engagement and high volume of decisions they are required to make during their shifts. This can lead to impaired clinical judgment and potentially compromise patient care.¹³ Nurses working on the frontline during COVID-19 also experienced decision fatigue as they navigated an uncertain situation that no one had encountered before.¹⁴

Globally, individuals regularly make choices and decisions that can impact the world. Decision fatigue can influence decision-making at a high level and affect the choices taken by company executives, academic leaders, and politicians. Many CEOs complain about experiencing burnout as a result of too much work, which leads to decision fatigue. However, some argue that the problem is the other way around—decision fatigue is causing burnout among companies’ senior leaders.¹⁶ 

Creative responses to tackle issues like decision fatigue and preventing burnout have included proposals for shorter workdays, or 4-day workweeks, as is being done in countries like New Zealand and Sweden.⁴ Pilot studies around the globe have found that switching to a 4-day workweek improves worker well-being and job satisfaction and can reduce certain costs for organizations.²⁵ Even pilots that offer compressed workweeks—i.e., working four consecutive 10-hour days—have proved to be more popular than the standard five-day, 9-5 grind.²⁶

Decision fatigue can also have consequences for financial markets. One study in China looked at the impact of decision fatigue on institutional investors’ bidding behaviors in the IPO (initial public offerings) market.¹⁷ An IPO is where private companies offer their shares to the public for the first time, transitioning into publicly traded entities. Using bidding data from 783 IPOs in China, the researchers found that as institutions became fatigued through making multiple bidding decisions throughout a day, their bid accuracy deteriorated. More specifically, they submitted more rounded, conservative bids (lower prices and fewer shares), ultimately securing fewer allocations and earning lower profits. In other words, they engaged in less risk-taking behavior.

As we’ve seen, decision fatigue occurs due to the mental exhaustion we face from having to make too many decisions. The following factors can contribute to the development of decision fatigue. 

People who more frequently have to make decisions based on trade-offs experience decision fatigue more intensely. As an example, those who live in poverty typically struggle with continual trade-offs. The average American usually won’t have to deliberate over whether or not they can afford soap, but that decision may be more common in, for example, rural India.⁵

Dean Spears, an economist and researcher at Princeton University, experimented to document and better understand the impact of trade-offs in more impoverished communities and their effect on an individual’s willpower. In 20 different villages in Rajasthan, Spears offered individuals the option to buy bars of soap for the equivalent of fewer than 20 cents, a steep discount in comparison to the typical price.⁵

Regardless of the cut, the dollar amount was still a straining factor for individuals, especially in the ten most impoverished villages. Additionally, the cognitive effort required for participants facing scarcity made it harder for them to determine whether the trade-off was truly worthwhile. Whether or not the individuals chose the deal and bought the soap, the consideration needed in making the decision left each person with less willpower, which was measured later by researchers.⁵

In comparison, participants from the more affluent villages were not as affected by the decision. When tested, their willpower wasn’t as tarnished by the previous decision-making task. Researchers believe this was due to their socio-economic background, as they had more money and did not need to assess the trade-offs of buying soap as intensely as those with less money.

Spears argued that this type of decision fatigue trapped people in poverty, as their financial situations forced them to make more trade-offs when making decisions. The additional decision fatigue experienced by these individuals resulted in them having less willpower to devote to school work, careers, and other activities, which may help them achieve a better quality of life away from poverty.

Finally, the recommendation to never go grocery shopping while hungry has actual merit. The impact that glucose levels have on decision fatigue was first discovered accidentally during a failed experiment at the Baumeister lab at the Albert-Ludwig University in Germany. The brain is better at avoiding decision fatigue when adequately supplied, deriving its energy from glucose, the sugar obtained from a wide variety of food. Researchers at Baumeister’s lab tested the impact of glucose on participants and found that supplying glucose helped individuals mitigate ego depletion and sometimes completely reversed it. The replenished willpower would enhance people's capacity for self-control and improve their decision-making abilities.²⁷

We need to be mindful of decision fatigue, as it is both prevalent in our lives and can lead to bad decision-making and burnout for many people.^6,7

Decision fatigue can also lead people to avoid making decisions altogether, a phenomenon referred to as decision avoidance. In response to the growing body of research on this topic, specific techniques have been developed to aid managers across industries in dealing with decision fatigue and decision avoidance.⁸ 

Decision fatigue can also influence how we impulsively purchase items, both big and small. For example, when we are grocery shopping, we have to make many choices, especially regarding the trade-offs of buying certain items. If we choose to go grocery shopping with low glucose levels, our decision-making ability could be especially affected by decision fatigue. For this reason, it is always advised to eat before buying food. Decision-making choices while making purchases could result in over-buying or buying items we don’t need.

Finally, decision fatigue can significantly impair our ability to self-regulate. Experiments have shown connections between decision fatigue and ego depletion, where the more choices we make, the higher the impact on our ability to self-control against impulses.⁹

Thankfully, researchers have identified different ways to reduce or eliminate decision fatigue in our daily lives.¹²

Reducing necessary choices or decisions is a common technique used to curb decision fatigue. A typical example of this is from the initial example with Obama, where he told Vanity Fair in 2012: “You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing, because I have too many other decisions to make.”³ We can also use technology and AI tools to help us make simpler, everyday decisions, such as using GPS to navigate to a new place or asking a personal electronic home assistant to choose some music. 

Famously, other prominent businessmen, such as Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, have also used this trick to eliminate unnecessary decision-making and focus on more relevant decisions.¹¹ By creating and sticking to routines, we will have fewer decisions to make in our day-to-day activities. An example of habits we can set would include having strict bedtimes and morning wake-ups, specific days and times to exercise, and specific days to do chores throughout the week.¹¹

If we’re lucky enough to be in a position to do so, we can delegate decisions to other people and reduce our own mental load. It may be as simple as asking a colleague to pick a lunch spot, or something more substantial, such as asking an intern to make an important strategic decision at work.¹⁵

As previously noted, glucose levels can impact our ability to make consistent decisions. Managing and maintaining blood sugar levels can be done by snacking throughout the day or only making decisions after eating, which can help prevent decision fatigue.¹² As previously mentioned, we also make better decisions earlier in the day.  To avoid decision fatigue, we can schedule work meetings and critical decision-making at the beginning of the day to take advantage of this trait.¹³

Finally, rest plays a crucial role in helping us maintain balance and make better decisions. People who are burned out or constantly making choices can overload their cognitive systems, leading to poor judgment and reduced self-control. By taking time off on weekends or throughout the day, we can help reduce decision fatigue in our decision-making process.^12,5 

The term decision fatigue was first documented by social psychologist Roy Baumeister to describe the mental and emotional strain resulting from the burden of making choices.

The term decision fatigue also looks at the concept of ego depletion, first discussed by Sigmund Freud. Freud theorized that our egos depend on mental activities, which involve the transfer of energy. Freud’s theory of a mental energy model was primarily ignored until Baumeister studied mental disciplines at Case Western and Florida State University. Freud’s mental energy model inspired Baumeister’s work on decision fatigue and its impact on decision-making.

The experiments conducted by Baumeister demonstrated that mental energy is finite, especially regarding its impact on our self-control. Baumeister noted that when we avoid temptations, such as eating chocolate chip cookies, we cannot resist other temptations. In one of his experiments, Baumeister found that participants gave up more quickly when asked to solve problems, such as working on a geometry puzzle, when not indulging their primary temptations. In another, participants were asked to make a series of choices, like picking items from a menu or choosing consumer products. Afterward, those participants performed worse on tasks that required self-control or mental effort, compared to a control group that didn’t make as many choices. Based on Baumeister’s investigations, he concluded that willpower was a form of mental energy that could be exhausted.¹⁰ This conclusion, in turn, confirmed the 19th-century assumption that willpower was like a muscle, which eventually becomes fatigued by continual use.

Building upon Baumeister’s work, the exploration of decision fatigue has gone beyond individual self-control into broader professional and institutional contexts. Notably, studies in fields like behavioral economics, medicine, and judicial systems have demonstrated how sustained decision-making tasks exhaust cognitive resources, driving individuals toward simplified, heuristic-driven choices. 

Decades ago, if you wanted to purchase an item, you would simply head to a high street store and browse the limited selection they had in stock at the time. If they didn’t have what you wanted, you might have decided to check out another store or two. 

Nowadays, we’re faced with a seemingly endless array of choices thanks to the rise of internet shopping. Not only do we have products from across the world available at our fingertips—we’re also invited to read thousands of product reviews to help ‘aid’ our decision-making. 

But more is not always better. Having thousands of products to choose from can actually hinder our ability to choose what we really want, particularly if we have to scroll through hundreds of options. According to research, 74% of shoppers say they have abandoned their online shopping cart because they were too overwhelmed by all the options being thrown at them.²² Even in physical stores, the number of options has skyrocketed: in 1976, the average American supermarket contained around 9,000 items, but today, that number is estimated to be 40,000.²¹ 

It’s not just the consumers of products who are getting overwhelmed by making decisions. Decision fatigue can also affect the product teams who are designing the items that we eventually leave abandoned in our shopping carts.²³ Lack of progress, over-reliance on useless meetings, and excessive delegation can all signal decision fatigue among project teams. 

Artificial Intelligence has revolutionized human decision-making. As mere mortals, we suffer from a range of constraints, like limited working memory, short attention spans, or decision fatigue, which can impact our ability to make quick, rational decisions. AI, on the other hand, can make decisions all day long and not become mentally exhausted. 

New tech companies and researchers are now harnessing AI and its superhuman powers to eliminate decision fatigue. AI-assisted decision-making and decision optimization machines are being developed that can make choices more strategically than our brains ever could. AI trading bots such as Trader AI can now make lightning-quick decisions about financial data that would take a person weeks or months to review.¹⁹ Similarly, we can use nutrition apps to delegate decisions about what we should eat, giving AI full responsibility for making sure we eat a balanced diet and get our five a day in. 

A group of researchers from the University of California, San Diego, explored how AI can mitigate decision fatigue in the context of choosing movies from a large number of available options.²⁰ The researchers developed the Decision Minimizer Network (DMN), a reinforcement learning-based approach designed specifically to minimize the number of decisions a user needs to make before finding a movie they are interested in watching. The tool was highly successful during tests: in a task where an individual was asked to select a movie to watch, it decreased the number of decisions by 39% compared to heuristic strategies and by 20% relative to standard recommendation systems. Users were also found to be more satisfied with their movie selections when using the DMN, simply because the quality of their decision-making wasn’t being impaired by infinite scrolling. 

However, it appears that AI may also be contributing to decision fatigue, particularly among younger generations who use assistive technologies more in their everyday lives. This process is called “cognitive offloading,” and businesses are well aware of its growing popularity.²⁶ For example, AI can help businesses, brands, and institutions personalize their communications with potential customers in order to increase sales and enhance customer loyalty. By offering individuals lots of options tailored to their individual needs, it can nudge them towards making purchases. 

But there’s a careful balance to strike. If we’re offered too many options, we can experience the paradox of choice–we are paralyzed by too many options, resulting in decision fatigue. This problem has been identified in students’ decisions about which university to attend and which course to take.¹⁸ Although colleges want to use personalized outreach to increase engagement and achieve higher enrolments, this can lead to delayed applications and students opting out of university because they simply don’t know what to do.

A famous example of decision fatigue is its influence on decision making at the judicial level. 

Certain prisoners in the justice system are given opportunities for parole throughout their sentence. Parole hearings, which occur between judges and prisoners, are typically assigned randomly throughout the day. Due to decision fatigue, the time of a parole appointment is particularly important, and an indicator of parole hearing results. Prisoners with earlier parole hearings are more likely to be given parole than prisoners with afternoon hearings, due to judges suffering from decision fatigue by afternoon time. The decision fatigue causes judges to choose the default option typical in parole hearings, which is to deny parole.¹

The scenario described above has been tested through several experiments, including one study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) examining parole procedures in an Israeli prison system. The analysis follows three different men in the Israeli prison system and the decision of a parole board. All three prisoners in question had completed at least two-thirds of their sentences. The order of the parole cases was as followed:

• Case 1: Took place at 8:50 a.m. and involved an Arab Israeli who was currently serving a 30-month sentence in jail for fraud. 
• Case 2: Took place at 3:10 p.m. and involved a Jewish Israeli who was currently serving a 16-month sentence in jail for assault. 
• Case 3: Took place at 4:25 p.m. and involved an Arab Israeli who was currently serving a 30-month sentence in jail for fraud.

Of these three men, only the first prisoner was granted parole: the prisoner whose parole sentence was in the morning. Even though case 1 and case 3 had similar prisoners serving the same sentence, the third prisoner did not receive parole. In case 2, the prisoner had initially received a shorter sentence and was still not granted parole. The study authors concluded that the results occurred due to the timing of the appointments.¹

The above example is consistent with an over-arching pattern found within the prison parole process. After analyzing more than 1,100 parole decisions over a year, the journal found that timing was the primary indicator of parole approval. Prisoners who had earlier scheduled appointments received parole in around 70% of cases, whereas prisoners with later parole hearings were granted parole around 10% fewer cases.¹

Researchers Jonathan Levav of Stanford University, and Shai Danziger of Ben-Gurion University, state that this type of behavior is not unusual or malicious. The judges’ decision making becomes erratic due to the mental work required to rule on each case. As the day progresses decision fatigue influences the decision of the judges more.¹

Another example of decision fatigue is exemplified by the experiment conducted by the postdoctoral fellow Jean Twenge at the Baumeister laboratory. Twenge investigated the impact of decision fatigue and self-control on students when making decisions.²⁸

For the first part of the experiment, Twenge retrieved an array of items from a department store that would appeal to college students. The researcher told participants they would be allowed to keep an item for themselves only after answering a series of questions. Students made choices that involved choosing between the department stores items, such as choosing between keeping a pen or a candle, or between two different scented candles. The students had to make several decisions throughout the experiment process.

The second group of students in this study was called non-deciders. The non-deciders had to assess all department store products without making any choices. This group of students only gave their opinion on each product and reported how often they had previously used it in the past six months.

The second part of the experiment then tested both groups and their self-control. They tested participants’ self-control by asking them to hold their hand in ice water for as long as possible. Individuals needed the self-discipline to keep their hands in the water, as the natural impulse is to pull their hand out of the uncomfortable water. Researchers thus measured self-discipline by how long participants were able to keep their hands in the water. The first group of participants, which consisted of students who had to make many decisions, kept their hands on average for twenty-eight seconds in the cold water. In comparison, participants who were not asked to make decisions kept their hands in the water on average for sixty-seven seconds, more than twice as long as the other control group.

Researchers concluded that participants who were not required to make decisions earlier in the experiment could hold their hands longer in the cold water due to their increased willpower. Students who experienced decision fatigue from previously having to make so many decisions lacked willpower when it came to the second part of the experiment.

What it is

Decision fatigue is a phenomenon that occurs when individuals make worse decisions as time goes on. It explains why individuals feel overwhelmed when they have too many choices to make. The effects of decision fatigue are widespread, from difficulty deciding what to eat to experiencing burnout at work.  

Why it happens

Decision fatigue occurs for various reasons, including but not limited to: mental exhaustion faced by trade-offs, time of day, economic background, and glucose levels.

Example 1 – Parole Decisions

Decision fatigue is notable in judges when granting parole for prisoners in the judicial system. Prisoners approved for parole usually had earlier parole appointments. This behavior occurred in the judge’s decision making because as the day progressed, decision fatigue would further influence the judges’ decision on parole approval. 

Example 2 – Self control

Another example of decision fatigue was demonstrated by Jean Twenge while working at the Baumeister laboratory. His experiment looked to identify if decision fatigue impacted self-control. The test confirmed that the control group who faced decision-making questions was more affected by decision fatigue and had less self-control than the other control.

How to avoid it 

Individuals can avoid decision fatigue by reducing choices in their everyday lives, creating routines, managing glucose levels, resting, and making decisions earlier in the day. 

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