{"id":626485,"date":"2026-03-02T08:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T08:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/626485\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T08:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T08:52:13","slug":"why-we-repeat-decisions-that-no-longer-make-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/626485\/","title":{"rendered":"Why We Repeat Decisions That No Longer Make Sense"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Summary: <\/strong>Why do we often stick to the \u201ctried and tested\u201d even when a better option is staring us in the face? A large-scale study suggests that our brains are far more influenced by pure repetition than by the actual value of an outcome.<\/p>\n<p>After analyzing 15 datasets involving over 700 participants, researchers found that we don\u2019t necessarily store the specific \u201cworth\u201d of an option; instead, we build a mental bias simply by repeating an action. This habit-like repetition acts as a cognitive shortcut, leading us to \u201cirrationally\u201d prefer certain choices in new contexts, regardless of whether they remain the best alternative.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key Facts<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The Repetition Bias:<\/strong> People tend to repeat previous decisions not because they have calculated them to be better, but simply because they have made that choice frequently in the past.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Context Transfer:<\/strong> These \u201cirrational\u201d preferences persist even when the decision-making environment changes or when equivalent (or superior) new options are introduced.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Valuation Illusion:<\/strong> The study found that options chosen more frequently were not only preferred later but were also retroactively rated as better by the participants.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Beyond Rationality:<\/strong> Many behaviors previously labeled as \u201cillogical\u201d are actually the result of the brain favoring a mental shortcut (action repetition) over a complex cost-benefit analysis.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Large-Scale Evidence:<\/strong> The findings were validated across nine new experiments and six previously published datasets, confirming a robust psychological pattern.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong>TUD<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why do people often make decisions in the same pattern and choose the tried and tested, even when there are\u00a0apparently better\u00a0alternatives? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A research team led by Stefan\u00a0Kiebel, Professor of Cognitive Computational Neuroscience at TUD, investigated this question in a large-scale study.<\/p>\n<p>To this end, the team examined nine newly collected decision-making tasks and six previously published data sets with a total of over 700 participants to\u00a0determine\u00a0how people initially learn values in clearly defined decision-making contexts and which of these learned options they\u00a0subsequently\u00a0prefer in newly combined contexts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur study shows that many\u00a0\u2018irrational\u2019\u00a0preferences do not necessarily arise primarily from people storing values\u00a0relative\u00a0to other values, but rather from the fact that people tend to repeat actions they once preferred in a particular context.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis pure repetition can later lead to a particular option still being preferred in new contexts or environments, even if there are equivalent or even better alternatives,\u201d explains lead author Dr Ben Wagner.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The researchers were thus able to prove that people tend to repeat decisions they have already made, regardless of whether these still make sense in the new moment. The decisive factor here is not\u00a0weighing up\u00a0the pros and\u00a0cons, but\u00a0remembering\u00a0previous\u00a0actions. This acts as a mental shortcut and influences the next choice.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe surprising thing was how strongly repetition alone can change preferences,\u201d explains Wagner. \u201cOptions that were chosen more frequently were not only\u00a0preferred, but\u00a0also rated as better.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The results help to better understand\u00a0seemingly illogical\u00a0behavior in everyday life, for example in shopping decisions,\u00a0habits\u00a0or recurring routines.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, the study provides new starting points for describing decision-making processes more realistically, for example in psychology, behavioral\u00a0research\u00a0or in the design of decision-making environments.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Key Questions Answered:<strong class=\"schema-faq-question\">Q: Is this why I always buy the same brand of coffee even when a better one is on sale?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"schema-faq-answer\"><strong>A:<\/strong> Exactly. Your brain isn\u2019t necessarily telling you the coffee is better; it\u2019s telling you that \u201cthis is the action we always perform.\u201d Over time, your brain justifies this repetition by convincing you the coffee is higher quality, even if it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\">Q: Can I \u201cun-learn\u201d these repetitive shortcuts?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"schema-faq-answer\"><strong>A:<\/strong> It\u2019s difficult because these shortcuts are designed to save brain energy. To break the cycle, you have to consciously force a \u201cstop-and-think\u201d moment to override the automatic preference for the familiar.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\">Q: How does this impact how stores or apps are designed?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"schema-faq-answer\"><strong>A:<\/strong> If a company can get you to make a choice just a few times, they\u2019ve already won half the battle. This research shows that once a choice becomes a repeated action, the actual price or quality of a competitor matters much less to your brain.<\/p>\n<p>Editorial Notes:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"background-color:#ffffe8\" class=\"wp-block-list has-background\">\n<li>This article was edited by a Neuroscience News editor.<\/li>\n<li>Journal paper reviewed in full.<\/li>\n<li>Additional context added by our staff.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>About this decision-making and neuroscience research news<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ffffe8\"><strong>Author: <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/neurosciencenews.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#4c22252f232029622b25293e252b0c383961283e293f282922622829\" type=\"mailto\" id=\"mailto:nicole.gierig@tu-dresden.de\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Nicole Gierig<\/a><br \/><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/tu-dresden.de\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">TUD<\/a><br \/><strong>Contact: <\/strong>Nicole Gierig \u2013 TUD<br \/><strong>Image: <\/strong>The image is credited to Neuroscience News<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ffffe8\"><strong>Original Research: <\/strong>Open access.<br \/>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s44271-025-00363-x\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s44271-025-00363-x\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Action repetition biases choice in context-dependent decision-making<\/a>\u201d by Ben J. Wagner,\u00a0H. Benedikt Wolf\u00a0&amp;\u00a0Stefan J. Kiebel. Communications Psychology<br \/><strong>DOI:10.1038\/s44271-025-00363-x<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Action repetition biases choice in context-dependent decision-making<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Humans are prone to decision biases, which make behavior seemingly irrational. An important cause for decision biases is that the context in which decisions are made can later influence which choices humans prefer in new situations.<\/p>\n<p>Current computational models (e.g. relative value learning or range normalization) often require extensive environmental knowledge to explain these biases.<\/p>\n<p>Here, we tested the hypothesis that decision biases are mainly driven by a tendency to repeat context-specific actions.<\/p>\n<p>We implemented a series of nine value-based decision-making tasks on n\u2009=\u2009351 male and female participants and reanalyzed six previously published datasets (n\u2009=\u2009350 participants).<\/p>\n<p>We found that higher within-context repetition of an option was associated with biased choices including higher subjective valuation and lower uncertainty for repeated actions.<\/p>\n<p>Next, we used a hierarchical Bayesian reinforcement learning model based on two basic principles, learning by reward and action repetition and tested it on all datasets.<\/p>\n<p>Our results show that the combination of these two basic principles is sufficient to explain biased choices in stable environments.<\/p>\n<p>We demonstrate via extensive model comparison that our model outperforms all tested alternatives (implementations of value normalization and a goal centric account).<\/p>\n<p>These results provide insights into decision biases during value-based decision-making and suggest a parsimonious mechanism for understanding habit-like choice tendencies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary: Why do we often stick to the \u201ctried and tested\u201d even when a better option is staring&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":626486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[11],"tags":[267630,267631,267632,173311,142366,3459,267633,210,831,1737,263221,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-626485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-action-repetition","tag-behavioral-psychology","tag-choice-preference","tag-cognitive-bias","tag-cognitive-neuroscience","tag-decision-making","tag-habit-formation","tag-health","tag-neuroscience","tag-psychology","tag-tud","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116158736195789960","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}