Do you have difficulty making decisions? Do you make decisions that you later regret or lead to worsening life situations?

The ability to make good decisions may be more important than intelligence in producing better life outcomes according to a study being done by Carnegie Mellon University and the RAND Corp.

The results of the study imply that teaching people decision-making skills could improve their quality of life.

“Intelligence doesn’t explain everything. Our results suggest that people with good decision-making skills obtain better real-life outcomes, even after controlling for cognitive ability, socio-economic status and other factors,” said Wändi Bruine de Bruin, a researcher in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon and the lead author of the study. “That is good news, because decision-making skills may be taught.”

Carnegie Mellon has a short version of the test online that you can take yourself to see how you score in comparison with other participants. The test takes about 15 minutes and is confidential but you do need to leave an email address for them to mail the test results back to you.

Read the article Good Decision-Makers May Be Made,
Not Born, Says Carnegie Mellon Study and take the test.