Recently I heard of some fascinating research being done at Stanford University of the leadership of Professor Baba Shiv. When I describe this experiment, you may at first think, as did I, that it deals with memory. What you will find is that it sheds light on the way we make choices

A group of people were gathered in a room, and randomly divided into two groups.  They were told that they would each be given a number to memorize.  Then they would be asked to go to another room where they would write down their number. Obviously, they assumed, as would we, that this was a test of memory. One at a time, each was given a number and they headed to the next room, no doubt concentrating on their memorized number.

 Remember that the participants were randomly divided into two groups. Without their knowing, half the participants were given a two digit number to remember and the other half a seven digit number to remember. As they started into the second room to write down their memorized number, they were met by a research assistant who asked them a simple brief question.  It was something like this:

“Excuse me, but we are having a snack after the test. Would you prefer fresh fruit or chocolate cake?”

Simple question—simple answer. They went on, wrote down their number and had their snack.

Here is the interesting thing: the vast majority of those remembering a two digit number chose fresh fruit; the vast majority of those trying to remember a seven digit number chose chocolate cake. At first, this can seem a bizarre and purely coincidental result.

Professor Shiva offers this explanation. (I am of course paraphrasing and greatly simplifying.) Two forces are at work in every decision we make: logic and emotion.  Logic says that fresh fruit is healthy, won’t make me fat, has vitamins, etc. and is a better choice.  Emotion says that chocolate cake is delicious, creamy, reminds me of mom and childhood, etc. and is the better choice. What Shiva’s experiment shows is that a simple mental act like remember seven digits for a few minutes, is enough to occupy our logic to the point where our emotion overrides our decision making.  Only five digits difference marks the line between making a logical decision and an emotional one.

This triggered so many thoughts in me.  Day after day, each of us wrestles with a lot more occupying our mind than a few digits to remember.  Some things awaken us in the night.  Problems, situations and trying to discern the future all occupy our thoughts day and night. No wonder it is so easy to make bad decisions.  It helped me realize how we can, in light of overwhelming evidence to our logic, sometimes choose poorly.

What all this most profoundly spoke to me, is how essential it is to depend upon God when making important, life affecting decisions. Proverbs 3:5 rings very loud and true:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

Trust, it seems to me, is the product of a conscious choice.  I choose to believe, based on any number of things:  experience, evidence, etc.  Our heart contains so much of our emotion, convictions, and other powerful influences not limited to cognitive process.  Our understanding comes from the convergence of all these influences.  And God is telling us it is better to lean on Him, trust Him, and give Him our heart than to make bad decisions that could derail our lives from the course He has for us.

Seems to be good advice to me…when I think how influential a few numbers and some chocolate cake can be. I think we would do well to remember this as we face the decisions we must all make in 2009.