Decision-Making Styles in an Evolutionary Perspective

Abstract

Naturalistic decision-making (NDM) investigates the cognitive strategies used by experts in making decisions in real-world contexts. Unlike studies conducted in the laboratory, the NDM paradigm is applied to real human interactions, often characterized by uncertainty, risk, complexity, time pressures and so on. In this approach, the role of experience is crucial in making possible a quick classification of decision-making situations and therefore in making an effective, rapid and prudent choice. Models of behaviour resulting from these studies represent an extraordinary resource for research and for the application of decision-making strategies in high-risk environments. They particularly underline not only that most of the critical decisions that we take are based on our intuition, but that the ability to recognize patterns and other signals that allow us to act effectively is a natural extension of experience.