ABSTRACT
The psychological health is, in part, determined by our ability to both decide alone and decide together, and to shift across these capacities dynamically over the course of our lives. Sometimes, deciding alone can be important, because we each have unique sets of tools and traits from which to draw-and compromise can be detrimental. But sometimes, deciding-with can lead to better outcomes. Working with Hristina Nikolova at Boston College, the authors have learned that couples that include two low self-control individuals will tend to indulge at about the same rate when they decide together as opposed to alone, and couples where both partners are paragons of restraint will restrict themselves the same way alone as together. In studying ethical decision making, Hristina, Nicole Verrochi Coleman, and the author finds that whether deciding-with makes you more or less moral depends on how close you are to your decision making partner.
