Deciding without tunnel vision – How the creative search for alternatives pays off
“There is no alternative!” was how British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher justified her economic and social policy reform program in the late 1970s. This slogan was soon caricatured in the media as the “TINA” principle. But do decisions without alternatives even exist? And what does their supposed lack of alternatives say about their quality? Recent studies resulting from a close collaboration between Bayreuth economist Dr. Johannes Siebert and U.S. decision theorist Prof. Dr. Ralph L. Keeney show: It is precisely when people look for different alternatives in a creative and goal-oriented way that the quality of their decisions increases. The two scientists present their results in the renowned journal “Operations Research”.