Indecision between close options doesn’t mean you secretly want to split your choice.

People rarely choose to randomize (say, toss a coin) on purpose, even when the option is free and visible.

People’s repeated choices rarely match their stated wish to split between options.

You are staring at two nearly identical apartments, or two health insurance plans, or two flavors of ice cream, and you cannot decide. Or maybe you are even torn between two suitors. You go back and forth and cannot settle. In an earlier post, I explained why this happens: Your brain is slower and noisier when two options are close in (subjective) value, a well-documented effect called strength of preference. But hesitation invites a tempting story. Maybe you are not actually undecided. Maybe some part of you wants suitor A and another part wants suitor B, and your wavering is that hidden preference leaking out, roughly in proportion to how torn you feel. My coauthors and I just tested this idea directly, in a paper published in Management Science, and the answer is reassuring: No, your back-and-forth is not a secret ballot.

The idea of a hidden vote

The notion is not far-fetched, and it has already been commercialized. A quick search of any app store turns up tools like Decision Maker & Chooser, Randomix, or Spin the Wheel, all built on the same premise: If you cannot decide, spin a wheel, roll a dice, or flip a coin, and let chance settle it for you. The implicit promise is that this is a shortcut to something you already........

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