This morning on NPR’s Morning Edition had a feature from Radiolab on decision making and the role played by the “rational” and the “intuitive” systems of the brain/mind.

Using George Miller’s seminal study on the limits of distinct things we can keep “in mind,” Baba Shiv, a professor at Stanford’s business school, had subjects individually given either a two-digit or a seven-digit number. They were asked to go to a room down the hall and repeat the number to the research assistant there. On the way down the hall, though, the subjects were stopped by another assistant and asked if they would like a snack— either a piece of chocolate cake or a cup of fruit.

The students trying to keep the two-digit number in their mind were more likely to choose the fruit. The ones trying to keep the seven-digit number in mind were twice as likely to choose the cake. Shiv reasons that trying to keep the seven-digit number fresh in the mind so preoccupied the rational, logic mental system that the more intuitive— or what what Shiv describes as the emotional— system was unencumbered and led students to choose the cake rather than the more rational and reasonable choice of the fruit— which we all know is “better for you.”

You can listen the the Radiolab story here: 20100126_me_19