Rainer Greifeneder, Mariela Jaffé, and I have a new paper out in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, in which we examine how simply seeing a random device such as a coin flip providing a suggestion can influence the need for information before settling for a decision. No matter whether it’s a hypothetical decision about prolonging someone’s contract, judging which one of two backpacks costs more, or deciding which medical charity receives money – coin participants are less likely to request additional information and indicate a lower need for additional information compared to control participants without a coin flip. Interestingly, participants do not necessarily adhere to the coin but stick to their preliminary decision as much as or even more than the control group. A coin flip may thereby help to avoid decision blocks or the collection of too much information.

Douneva, M., Jaffé, M., & Greifeneder, R. (2019). Toss and turn or toss and stop? A coin flip reduces the need for information in decision-making Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 83, 132-141. doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2019.04.003