As psychologists and neuroscientists often remind us, making decisions involves a myriad of brain mechanisms, many of them located below conscious thought : chance, our prejudices or the opinions of our environment tip the balance for one or the other. option without us noticing.
Now, a new study, published in the journal Cognition , suggests that we take into account an added factor: the time of day we decide . To gauge the weight of this circumstance, the researchers have analyzed the movements of 99 chess players in a total of one million online games , since this game allows ruling out the effect of luck on final success or failure and is a controlled scenario.
Thus they were able to verify that the earliest players not only took more time to perform their movements, but that they were also better from a strategic point of view. As the afternoon progressed and the sun went down, the statistics showed the opposite result: the movements, which sped up 2.5% , were both more risky and less effective.
Patience , as can be deduced from this research, runs out faster as night approaches and the body asks for rest: the 'larks' – the people who like to get up early – have a better chance of getting their decisions right. .. at least if they play chess.
