Deciding without thinking - an excerpt from Unthinking by Harry Beckwith

 How did all of them explain their final choice?
It just felt right.

That's the rule, not the exception. When our shortcuts don't work, we decide with our feelings, usually within seconds, then reassemble the facts to support our decisions. So what are these feelings that lead us to choose what we choose?

An important force is fear. We deeply fear looking and feeling foolish. Like all those corporate purchasing agents in the 1980s who knew the axiom that "no one ever got fired for choosing IBM", even if they chose wrong, they and everyone else would think they'd made the right choice. 

This book examines three major influences that drive our feelings - our childhoods, our American culture, and our eyes - and it's to those unfluences and some of the more remarkable stories I have ever heard, that we now turn.