{
  "title": "Deferring a decision: what conflict between options can explain",
  "url": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/reporter-un-arbitrage-ce-que-le-conflit-entre-options-peut-expliquer-en",
  "language": "en",
  "datePublished": "2025-12-15",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "SHR — Swiss Human Resources",
    "url": "https://www.shr.swiss",
    "address": "Esplanade de Pont-Rouge 9A, 1212 Lancy, Suisse"
  },
  "summary": "A deferred decision does not necessarily indicate a lack of information. It may reveal how difficult it is to justify a trade-off between several defensible options.",
  "section": "Research",
  "topic": "Decision-making",
  "place": {
    "name": "Lausanne",
    "region": "Vaud",
    "country": "CH"
  },
  "keyPoints": [
    {
      "heading": "What the literature establishes",
      "point": "Amos Tversky and Eldar Shafir (1992, Psychological Science) demonstrated experimentally that conflict between options can encourage decision deferral."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The need for a reason to choose",
      "point": "Eldar Shafir, Itamar Simonson and Amos Tversky (1993, Cognition) offer an account of choice based on the reasons people can draw on to prefer one option."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The hasty conclusion",
      "point": "One might conclude that a decision should be imposed whenever several options are acceptable."
    },
    {
      "heading": "What the evidence cannot diagnose",
      "point": "Experimental situations do not reproduce all the constraints of an investment committee, regulatory approval or academic governance."
    },
    {
      "heading": "A practical check in Lausanne",
      "point": "Within SHR’s [decision-making](/formation/prise-de-decision/lausanne) programme in Lausanne, an exercise suitable for medtech companies, higher education institutions, international sports organisations and scale-ups across the Lake Geneva region is to keep a register of deferred decisions for one month."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "authors": "Shafir",
      "year": "1992",
      "source": "Psychological Science"
    },
    {
      "authors": "Tversky",
      "year": "1993",
      "source": "Cognition"
    }
  ],
  "wordCount": 386,
  "image": "https://www.shr.swiss/img/blog-editorial-2025-12-15-en.jpg?v=4",
  "translations": {
    "fr": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/reporter-un-arbitrage-ce-que-le-conflit-entre-options-peut-expliquer",
    "en": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/reporter-un-arbitrage-ce-que-le-conflit-entre-options-peut-expliquer-en",
    "de": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/reporter-un-arbitrage-ce-que-le-conflit-entre-options-peut-expliquer-de",
    "it": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/reporter-un-arbitrage-ce-que-le-conflit-entre-options-peut-expliquer-it"
  },
  "relatedPages": {
    "programme": "https://www.shr.swiss/formation/prise-de-decision/lausanne",
    "city": "https://www.shr.swiss/formations-ville/lausanne",
    "blog": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog"
  },
  "citationPolicy": "Citation autorisée avec mention « SHR — Swiss Human Resources » et lien vers l'article."
}