Making the Right Decision: Intensifying the Worth of a Chosen Option

When people make decisions, they want the outcomes of their choice to be as positive as possible. But they also want the decision-making process itself to be conducted in the right way. Though this is often described as making decisions that are moral or ethical, it also includes making decisions that are appropriate—that are suitable and fitting. We focus on this latter, overlooked interpretation, and propose that making the right decision is about effectively establishing what is true and real. We discuss three factors that can lead people to experience their decision-making process as being right: (1) making a decision in the “right way”; (2) making a decision in a manner that “feels right” given the decision maker's current motivational orientation; and (3) making a decision based upon a “shared reality” with others. We review evidence that making the right decision in each of these ways intensifies the worth of a given chosen option.