How confidence and action control impact decision making and goal attainment The art of making good choices and being consistent in executing them is essential for having a successful and fulfilling life. Researchers from SWPS University’s Institute of Psychology, Maksymilian Bielecki, Ph.D. /Assistant Professor and Professor Magdalena Marszał-Wiśniewska examined how individual differences in action control influence wellbeing. #decision making #metacognition #action control #individual differences What we researched: The underlying cognitive differences between action-oriented and state-oriented individuals (i.e. those who struggle to commit to their choices and end up second-guessing themselves) in performing simple binary-choice decision tasks. How we did it: The researchers studied action-oriented and state-oriented individuals, who performed tasks requiring quick decision making, for example assessing the size of objects appearing on a screen or judging attractive. They found out that a positive confidence bias, coupled with appropriate metacognitive sensitivity, might be crucial for the successful realization of intentions in many real-life situations. More generally, the study provided an example of how modelling latent cognitive processes can bring meaningful insight into the study of individual differences. Why is it important: Because the results showed that confidence might be a crucial individual trait, which impacts not only decision making, but also goal attainment. "All else being equal, the confidence gap [ed. between action-oriented and state-oriented individuals] might be the reason why some people succeed where others cannot."