Definition, Examples, & How to Overcome It

With so many choices for everything, deciding which option suits our needs may be daunting. It is normal to feel this way now and then. However, if we often struggle with making decisions, we may feel anxious or overwhelmed every time we need to choose something.

Indecisiveness is the generalized difficulty to make satisfying decisions (Appel, Englich & Burghardt, 2021). When we are indecisive, we evaluate and reevaluate the same set of information. We may spend a long time weighing the pros and cons of every option, only to be paralyzed by them. Because we delay our decision-making until it is almost too late, we may be forced to choose something in the end or let someone else choose it for us.

​Sometimes we are satisfied with that decision, but often we are not, so we brood over questions that start with “what if” while ignoring other situations and tasks we should focus on. To understand the impact of indecisiveness, let’s find out what happens when we don’t struggle with decision-making.

Do you know anyone who seems never to have any difficulties choosing an option they are satisfied with? These individuals can come up with a decision or a solution to a problem quickly and easily. Moreover, even if they make mistakes in this process or their decision doesn’t lead to a desirable outcome, they are undeterred by it.  We call these individuals decisive and resolute. But what does it really mean to be decisive?

Decisiveness is the ability to evaluate the information at hand and make a timely decision. Being decisive allows individuals to eliminate frustration and anxiety associated with making decisions and gives them peace of mind. It also means that these individuals can direct their focus to other matters. This shift in mental energy, in turn, enables them to reach their goals with fewer distractions and mistakes. In other words, decisive individuals tend to be less stressed out and more content with themselves and their decisions. They also may feel more successful and have higher self-confidence as a result.

The first thing we might want to consider regarding indecisiveness is what it means for our mental health.  We don’t generally consider indecisiveness a psychiatric disorder. However, an extreme inability to engage in decision-making called aboulomania can severely affect a person’s ability to function in everyday life. Whereas an individual with occasional indecisiveness can still make some of their decisions with ease, people with aboulomania may feel anxious for every single decision they need to make.

Although indecisiveness is not considered a psychiatric disorder, it is a symptom of certain conditions such as major depressive disorder, general anxiety disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD (Lauderdale, Martin & Moore, 2019). But why is indecisiveness so prevalent under certain psychiatric conditions? 

Neurobiologists consider decision-making to be a two-step process: valuation and choice. In the valuation step, the individual finds how much they can gain with each option. This task is handled primarily in a brain area known as the ventral prefrontal cortex (Lebreton & Lopez-Persem, 2022). In the choice step, which occurs nearby in the dorsal prefrontal cortex, the individual picks the option with the best value (Lebreton & Lopez-Persem, 2022). Hence, any disorders that affect these areas can disrupt decision-making. Let’s discuss some of the conditions that are associated with indecisiveness.

Indecisiveness is so common in patients with depression that it is included as a symptom of major depressive disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), which is the handbook used by mental health professionals to diagnose mental disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). 

But why do people with depression struggle with making decisions? There may be a multitude of reasons. For instance, when individuals are depressed, they may feel like nothing matters any longer. Therefore, they may not be particularly drawn toward one option or another. This indifference, coupled with hopelessness, may lead to passivity in decision-making (Leykin, Roberts, & DeRubeis, 2011). 

Another reason might be the unwillingness of depressed individuals to deal with any unpleasant consequences if they end up making a wrong decision. In other words, they might be avoiding anything that may increase their negative emotions. This seems true for risky choices, as shown in a study that required participants to bet on a box with known winning probabilities. Although depressed subjects did not differ from others in their frequency of choosing the winning box, they took much longer to do so and bet lower amounts, highlighting their aversion to potential failures (Murphy et al., 2001).

Have you ever had trouble making a decision when you felt anxious? That’s because the link between indecisiveness and anxiety is a two-way phenomenon. Not only is making a decision known to induce anxiety, but feeling anxious can also prevent you from behaving decisively. This double-sided regulation might be due to the high connectivity of the prefrontal cortex with the amygdala, which is the brain region that mediates fear and anxiety. Indeed, a body of evidence suggests changes in the amygdala–prefrontal cortex circuitry plays a role in indecisiveness and anxiety (Hartley & Phelps, 2012).

When you feel anxious, you might feel like you aren’t able to think straight. You might also be less confident about how you evaluated the options. Similarly, when you are making a tough decision, the importance of the situation may stress you out, and you may feel anxious about making a mistake. Moreover, if you are already anxious and have to make an important decision, you may find yourself in a loop of anxiety and indecisiveness.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is characterized by excessive orderliness, irrational thoughts, and unfounded fears that result in compulsive actions, such as repeatedly cleaning the same surface or body part or having difficulty tolerating uncertainty. Most obsessive-compulsive individuals also display a remarked inability to decision-making. Functional imaging studies have linked functional abnormalities in the orbitofrontal cortex (Nielen et al., 2002) and the connectivity between the orbitofrontal cortex with basal ganglia (the brain area that controls the planning and execution of movements and behaviors) to play a role in these patients (Cavedini, Gorini & Bellodi, 2006).

A group of researchers investigated the decision-making characteristics of unmedicated OCD patients relative to control subjects. They had found that the individuals with OCD performed similarly to controls when the risks were evident but not when the risks were uncertain, the degree of which correlated with the severity of their OCD symptoms (Pushkarskaya et al., 2015). In other words, the inability to deal with uncertainty may be a reason why these individuals may find it difficult to make certain decisions.

Until now, we have discussed the neurological and psychiatric roots of indecisiveness. Sometimes indecision is caused by having too many options to consider, such as when browsing the shelves of a supermarket for salad dressing and there are at least fifty different bottles to choose from. Nevertheless, the inability to make decisions has also to do with our upbringing and the society we belong to. For instance, a multinational study has found that Japanese individuals exhibited greater indecisiveness than American and Chinese participants (Yates et al., 2010).

Early Causes of Indecision
What about upbringing? Researchers have found that childhood trauma alters brain activation patterns involved in decision-making. Simply put, young adults who experienced traumatic levels of stress as children were unable to evaluate risks associated with options, which in turn hampered their ability to make sound decisions (Birn, Roeber & Pollak, 2017).

However, you don’t have to experience trauma during childhood to end up generally indecisive; parenting style may also be a factor. Not every child grows up with the same parenting influence. Some parents are strict (i.e., authoritarian), some are permissive, and some are in between. Research has shown that growing up with strict parents was associated with indecisiveness (Ferrari & Olivette, 1993). Similarly, authoritative parenting appears to impair the ability of adolescents to decide on a career path (Kaur & Singh, 2019).  

For me, these findings hit close to home. My parents made most of the decisions for me when I was growing up. I struggled to voice my opinions about my tastes and preferences for many years and felt safer leaving decisions to other people. In short, whenever people asked questions such as “Which station do you want to listen to” or “Where do you want to grab lunch?” I used to respond with “I don’t know, what do you want?” even when I knew very well what I wanted. I was indecisive due to fear of offending people or appearing ridiculous, and it took me many years to stop people pleasing​.

If you would like to learn more about the causes of indecisiveness, you might enjoy this video.

Indecisiveness can manifest in all areas of everyday life and can affect everyone. Here are some common examples that you may have observed or done yourself.

Indecisiveness Due To Too Many Options

• Picking a menu option. Have you ever struggled to decide which entrée to order on a menu? 
• Car buying. Most people drive the same vehicle for many years. Given that purchasing a car is a long-term investment, decision-making may be difficult, especially since many appealing options might fit your budget.
• Choosing what to cook. Sometimes having a well-stocked kitchen makes it harder to decide on what to prepare for supper.
• What to wear. If you have changed your mind multiple times about what to wear within five minutes, you’re not alone. In fact, there is a reason why you have seen Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, and Mark Zuckerberg wearing the same type of clothes — to reduce decision fatigue to save their mental energy for important matters.
• Buying groceries. Most grocery stores stock many options for the same item. A buying strategy, such as buying the house brand, can help with indecisiveness.

Here is an intriguing presentation by the famous psychologist Barry Schwartz, explaining why having too many options may paralyze our decision-making.

Indecisiveness in Relationships

• Post-break-up uncertainty. Sometimes people hesitate to break up with a partner they are not happy with because they fear uncertainty. They may fear being alone or the possibility of remaining single for the rest of their lives. Hence, they appear indecisive about whether they want to be in that relationship.
• Taking the next step. People may also hesitate to fully dedicate themselves to their partners and delay taking the next steps in their relationships as much as possible. 
• Avoiding judgments. An individual who is ambivalent toward their relationship may fear criticism and avoid breaking up, especially if their partner is well-respected or loved by family, friends, and others.
• Choosing a partner. Another source of indecisiveness in relationships is when a person is mutually interested in multiple potential partners and can’t make up their mind. In some cases, they may date multiple partners at the same time. Yet other indecisive people may stay away from all of their love interests until it is too late. 

Career Indecisiveness

• Choosing a path. Deciding on a career is a long-term decision that may affect a person’s socioeconomic status. With so many educational opportunities and career options, it may be daunting to choose the right one. Figuring out your likes and dislikes, considering your talents, and talking to a career counselor may help you find the best option for you.
• Indecision about current positions. It is pretty common that people stay in jobs that they dislike and can’t decide whether they should switch to a different position or career track or become entrepreneurs. Some expect that they may be dissatisfied with the new job or career. Others fear losing their current income or are afraid of the possibility that they won’t succeed.

Occasional indecisiveness isn’t all that bad. If you are indecisive because you are carefully weighing your options, you are likely to avoid rushing into decisions that you might regret later. That being said, if you tend to be indecisive in many situations, you may end up wasting your mental energy on trivial matters. Here are a few strategies to overcome indecisiveness that you might find helpful.

• List pros and cons for each option. Determining what you might gain or lose in each case, especially for significant decisions, may help you narrow down the choices or pick the one with the most benefits. It also enables you to visualize yourself in each scenario so that you can determine which option you are more comfortable with.
• Do your research. If you consider an important decision, such as whether you should accept a job in a different state, you might want to research your job responsibilities and expectations. You may also try to find out whether you’d be happy in the town or city where the job is located. Try visiting the area and absorbing as much information as possible about the company and the town.
• Avoid the perfection trap. Nobody is perfect, and people make mistakes. It is okay that others snicker behind your back when you fail at something or do a subpar job. Sometimes we have to fail to learn. Otherwise, you will perfect only one skill: avoidance.
• Reduce options. Have trouble figuring out which cereal you want to eat?  Where to go for your honeymoon? What to wear in the morning? The cure might be limiting your options. Again, remember Steve Jobs only wore black turtlenecks for a reason. 
• Establish default options. You might take a pen and paper and make a list of go-to options for everyday decisions. This strategy automates some of your decisions, and you know exactly what to expect. For instance, I have go-to menu items at restaurants I frequent. I tend to order these default meals unless I crave something else.
• Flip a coin. Stuck between two options that are equally good (or bad)? Flip a coin and save your mental energy for something else.

• “There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.” — William James
• “I think possibly what people working for one hate the most is indecision. Even if I’m completely unsure, I’ll pretend I know exactly what I’m talking about and make a decision. The most important thing I can do is try and make myself very clearly understood.” — Anna Wintour
• “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” — Theodore Roosevelt
• “When you’re offered things, it makes it so much easier to be indecisive. And it’s silly because you can pass on some really amazing things.” — Alicia Silverstone
• “The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision.” — Maimonides
• “Indecision and reveries are the anesthetics of constructive action.” —Sylvia Plath

​Want to learn more about indecisiveness​? Check out these articles:

• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). DSM 5 diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. In DSM 5 Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders.
• Appel, H., Englich, B., & Burghardt, J. (2021). “I Know What I Like”–Indecisiveness Is Unrelated to Behavioral Indicators of Evaluation Difficulties. Frontiers in psychology, 4042.
• Birn, R. M., Roeber, B. J., & Pollak, S. D. (2017). Early childhood stress exposure, reward pathways, and adult decision making. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(51), 13549-13554.
• Cavedini, P., Gorini, A., & Bellodi, L. (2006). Understanding obsessive–compulsive disorder: focus on decision making. Neuropsychology review, 16(1), 3-15.
• Ferrari, J. R., & Olivette, M. J. (1993). Perceptions of parental control and the development of indecision among late adolescent females. Adolescence, 28(112), 963-970.
• Hartley, C. A., & Phelps, E. A. (2012). Anxiety and decision-making. Biological psychiatry, 72(2), 113–118.
• Kaur, R., & Singh, S. (2019). A Study Of Relationship Between Career Decision Making And Parenting Style Among Adolescents. Editorial Board, 8(12), 61.
• Lauderdale, S. A., Martin, K. J., & Moore, J. (2019). Aversive indecisiveness predicts risks for and symptoms of anxiety and depression over avoidant indecisiveness. Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 37(1), 62-83.
• Lebreton, M., & Lopez-Persem, A. (2022). Anatomy and Disorders of Decision-Making. Encyclopedia of Behavioral Neuroscience, 2nd edition: 289-297. 
• Leykin, Y., Roberts, C. S., & DeRubeis, R. J. (2011). Decision-making and depressive symptomatology. Cognitive therapy and research, 35(4), 333-341.
• Murphy FC, Rubinsztein JS, Michael A, Rogers RD, Robbins TW, Paykel ES, et al. (2001). Decision-making cognition in mania and depression. Psychological Medicine. 31:679–693.
• Nielen, M. M. A., Veltman, D. J., De Jong, R., Mulder, G., & Den Boer, J. A. (2002). Decision making performance in obsessive compulsive disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders, 69(1-3), 257-260.
• Pushkarskaya, H., Tolin, D., Ruderman, L., Kirshenbaum, A., Kelly, J. M., Pittenger, C., & Levy, I. (2015). Decision-making under uncertainty in obsessive–compulsive disorder. Journal of psychiatric research, 69, 166-173.
• Yates, J. F., Ji, L. J., Oka, T., Lee, J. W., Shinotsuka, H., & Sieck, W. R. (2010). Indecisiveness and culture: Incidence, values, and thoroughness. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 41(3), 428-444.