How Not to Screw Up Your Life Decisions

Humans have no choice but to make decisions. Many of those decisions are consequential to our personal lives and future. Scholars who study how decisions ought to be made almost invariably invoke the notion of utility maximization, which is choosing the option that has the highest payoff, whatever that may be: reputation, happiness, life satisfaction, sense of accomplishment, etc. However, pursuing utility maximization has its shortcomings when dealing with life changing decisions: choosing between grad school and a high paying job; choosing a particular graduate program; getting married; or having children. We discuss theories and findings from philosophy, psychology and neuroscience, to understand better how not to screw up our life decisions.