International Journal of Education and Social Science (IJESS)

Students make decisions with far-reaching consequences. This manuscript applies recent advances in understanding decision processes to illuminate several sources of bias and error in student decisions. Decision making uses an energy resource (willpower) also involved in self- control, and so when people experience depleted resources, their decisions may be less effective than usual. We review factors that contribute to depleted willpower (e.g., decision fatigue, poor diet, lack of sleep), as well as well as results of decision making in depleted state (decision avoidance and postponement, irrational bias, passive endorsement of status quo and default options, lack of integrative compromise, heeding of irrelevant criteria).