‘Decision fatigue’ in student groups

In a recent New York Times column on “decision fatigue,” writer John Tierney contends that we all have finite amounts of willpower, and that our decision-making abilities get worse throughout a day of choices.

So, he writes, “Even the wisest people won’t make good choices when they’re not rested and their glucose is low … They don’t make major commitments during the cocktail hour.”

Unfortunately, that sounds a lot like how we act as students.

Student life lets us play every character: student, athlete and socialite — maybe even chipping in to opine on how we think this University should be run.

Who says we can’t take 18 hours of classes, play club sports, do student government, manage our fraternity and be a regular at Top of the Hill, all in the same semester?

After all, there are 24 hours in each day. We might as well use them.

So our activities go on late into the evening. Student Congress doesn’t start until 7:30 p.m. Dawn breaks, and sororities are still selecting new members some nights during rush. We can all think of other examples across campus.

And as Tierney suggests, it results in undesirable outcomes.

Take Student Congress, for example. It isn’t the most inspiring place to spend a Tuesday evening, as I found out last week.

Tired faces gaze at their laptops, glancing up occasionally to squint at the projector screen or to vote as Speaker Zack De La Rosa tries to navigate interminable parliamentary procedure.

Everyone seems relieved when it’s over.

I wasn’t at all surprised by the debacle following the funding request to bring Ann Coulter to campus by UNC’s College Republicans last week.

In the circumstances, it’s impressive that the collective group came to a vaguely coherent decision at all, given the political and financial pressures of the decision.

“When the brain’s regulatory powers weaken, frustrations seem more irritating than usual,” Tierney tells us, describing researcher Roy Baumeister’s ego-depletion experiments. “Ego-depleted humans become more likely to get into needless fights about turf. In making decisions, they take illogical shortcuts.”

Rush decisions at this time of year seem to fit the picture, too.

As the night’s voting progresses, I’m told the comments about rushees in at least two Panhellenic sororities get cattier and cattier.

If it helps at all, I guess we can blame it on nature, rather than any individual flaws.

But it is something we can be aware of — and work around.

Daily Tar Heel news editors used to meet at 12:30 a.m. each night to prepare for the coming day’s paper, but they now use technology to do so intermittently throughout the day.

That means more sleep — and according to Tierney, hopefully fewer poor decisions.

No one’s about to start regimens of 9:30 p.m. on-campus bedtimes or suggest that all student leadership decisions be made prior to that 11 a.m. seminar. One has to be realistic, after all.

But sadly, that 5-hour energy shot probably doesn’t mean 5 hours of good critical thinking.

Mark Laichena is a senior political science and PWAD major from London, U.K. Contact him at laichena@live.unc.edu.