Always the same favorite place in the café. Always the same dish on the menu. Always the same route to work. Many things in our lives follow the motto: was good, stays good. But why is that? Researchers at the Technical University of Dresden have now found an answer to this question.
A team led by Professor Stefan Kiebel, an expert in cognitive computational neuroscience, i.e. the study of mental processes using computer models, has investigated how people make decisions. The research team used nine newly developed decision-making tasks as well as six existing data sets with a total of more than 700 participants. The study investigated how people initially become familiar with certain options and how they later decide when these reappear in new combinations.
Memory often decides more strongly than deliberation
It was particularly surprising to see how strongly a simple mechanism works. "Our study shows that many 'irrational' preferences do not primarily arise because people store values relative to other values, but because people tend to repeat preferred actions in a certain context," explains first author Dr. Ben Wagner. This repetition later leads to a particular option continuing to be preferred in new environments, even if there are equivalent or even better alternatives.
In other words, it is often not the conscious weighing up of advantages and disadvantages that plays the most important role, but the memory of what we have done before. In a sense, the brain uses a mental shortcut.
Frequently chosen automatically means better rated
Another key finding: options that people choose more often actually seem better to them over time. "The surprising thing was how much repetition alone can change preferences," explains Wagner. "More frequently chosen options were not only preferred, but also rated as better." In other words, people who reach for the same brand more often eventually consider it to be the better one, even without comparing them again.
The study was published in the journal "Communications Psychology". It helps to better understand everyday decisions and habits and provides new approaches for psychology and behavioral research, for example in the design of decision-making environments. Understanding how habits are formed can also help to change unfavorable routines in a more targeted way.
Original publication:
Wagner, B.J., Wolf, H.B. & Kiebel, S.J. Action repetition biases choice in context-dependent decision-making. Commun Psychol 3, 177 (2025).
