The Dangers of Overthinking

Ever heard of Buridan’s ass? No, not that kind of ass!

I’m talking about the horse-like animal otherwise known as the donkey. More specifically, the donkey is famously stuck in a choice dilemma described by French philosopher Jean Buridan. The donkey in question faces a tricky choice. She finds herself in the middle of two identical haystacks. With both stacks equal in distance, size, and hayey goodness, the donkey has absolutely no preference for either. Deeply troubled, she looks from one haystack to the other. Which one should she choose? She supposes she might be able to gobble up both, but again: Which one should be first? The despairing ass finds herself trapped in an impossible conundrum. Hours and days pass by, until she suffers the tragic consequences of her indecision, eventually succumbing to starvation.

What do you make of this little tale? Fair enough, it’s hard to feel sorry for a donkey who starves to death with perfectly good food in plain sight. Indeed, the entire story seems somewhat far-fetched. After all, when do we ever find ourselves presented with completely identical options? And isn’t it obvious that a random choice is always preferable to starvation? Also, if the dilemma is too tough to resolve, couldn’t the ass just walk away and find herself a third haystack to munch on?

Analysis paralysis

It’s easy to discount Buridan’s ass as just another philosophical thought experiment with little real-life relevance. But hold your horses (or donkeys) and wait until you write it off completely! The starving ass offers an important lesson for human decision-making that’s often overlooked: Overthinking your choices can have dangerous consequences.

By obsessively weighing up similar or near-identical options, we stand very little to gain. After all, the outcomes are likely to be almost the same. However, the lengthy decision process may lead to unnecessary delays or even prevent us from making a choice altogether—often at a significant personal detriment. Umming and erring over which outfit to buy may mean you wear the same old clothes forever. Not being able to choose between two parties may leave you spending the evening at home alone. Struggling to commit to one of two lovers may mean you lose them both.

This phenomenon of indecision, often referred to as analysis paralysis, may be linked to perfectionist attitudes and the desire to identify the very best option, which I discussed in a recent post on satisficing. Additionally, it can be worsened by the availability of too many options, resulting in choice overload that leaves you feeling overwhelmed.

Overthinking in sports

Interestingly, the tendency to overthink choices and actions can even interfere with trained intuition and experience. A striking example of this comes from the context of competitive sports such as golf, tennis, or cricket, where skilled athletes sometimes report the sudden loss of skills acquired during years of practice. The phenomenon is commonly referred to as the “yips”, “choking,” or the “twisties” depending on the context, and research suggests it may be linked to heightened levels of anxiety, self-conscious overthinking, and perfectionism. By trying to consciously master certain movements or actions, athletes affected by the yips may end up bypassing their muscle memory and fail to perform to the standard they are used to.

Researchers have tried to understand the bizarre phenomenon through qualitative studies. One project involved interviewing competitive cricket players who had suffered the yips, and identifying common themes associated with their symptoms. Extreme anxiety and panic were reported frequently, with one interviewee explaining: “I felt very nervous and out of control—I know it sounds stupid but it was like I’d been taken over, I just couldn’t do it.” Trying to compensate for their nerves, it appeared that the affected cricketers tried to overthink and control their subsequent movements. This strategy was rarely followed by success, as illustrated by the following comment: “I was telling myself when to let it go [the ball] because I realized I was not letting the ball go at the right time, so I was saying to myself “let it go” and, of course, you can’t say that because by the time you’ve said that your arm is down on the ground.”

Sudden, cruel, and often difficult to overcome, the yips have ruined entire careers, for example, forcing gymnast Simone Biles to withdraw from the Olympics and Stephen Hendry to abandon his previously skyrocketing career in snooker.

Researchers, sports psychologists, and athletes agree that it’s hard to understand “the yips” if you haven’t experienced them yourself. If you’re struggling to understand the concept of overthinking, I leave you to ponder the following little poem:

The Centipede's Dilemma
Katherine Craster
A centipede was happy – quite!
Until a toad in fun
Said, "Pray, which leg moves after which?"
This raised her doubts to such a pitch,
She fell exhausted in the ditch
Not knowing how to run.