Individual factors affecting Decision making process

Factors that Influence Decision Making

Past experiences 

can impact future decision making and past decisions influence the decisions people make in the future. It stands to reason that when something positive results from a decision, people are more likely to decide in a similar way, given a similar situation. On the other hand, people tend to avoid repeating past mistakes .

 cognitive biases 

 influence decision making. Cognitive biases are thinking patterns based on observations and generalizations that may lead to memory errors, inaccurate judgments, and faulty logic 

Cognitive biases include

belief bias, 

the over dependence on prior knowledge in arriving at decisions;

 hindsight bias, 

people tend to readily explain an event as inevitable, once it has happened; 

omission bias, generally, people have a propensity to omit information perceived as risky; and confirmation bias, in which people observe what they expect in observations 

escalation of commitment and sunk outcomes

 which are unrecoverable costs. Juliusson, Karlsson, and Garling (2005) concluded people make decisions based on an irrational escalation of commitment, that is, individuals invest larger amounts of time, money, and effort into a decision to which they feel committed; further, 

Some individual differences may also influence decision making. Research has indicated that age, socioeconomic status (SES), and cognitive abilities influences decision making 

Age factor 

a significant difference in decision making across age; that is, as cognitive functions decline as a result of age, decision making performance may decline as well. In addition, older people may be more overconfident regarding their ability to make decisions, which inhibits their ability to apply strategies (de Bruin et al., 2007). Finally, with respect to age, there is evidence to support the notion that older adults prefer fewer choices than younger adults 

Age is only one individual difference that influences decision making. According to de Bruin et al. (2007), people in lower SES groups may have less access to education and resources, which may make them more susceptible to experiencing negative life events, often beyond their control; as a result, low SES individuals may make poorer decisions, based on past decisions.

 the belief in personal relevance. 

When people believe what they decide matters, they are more likely to make a decision. Acevedo and Krueger (2004) examined individuals' voting patterns, and concluded that people will vote more readily when they believe their opinion is indicative of the attitudes of the general population,