Why your brain keeps making the same decisions – even when better options exist

Have you wondered why some people voted for Trump three times?

Technische Universität Dresden

Why do we keep making the same choices even when better options are available? 

Researchers found that simply repeating a decision can reshape what we prefer, causing familiar choices to feel better than alternatives. 

Instead of weighing every option from scratch, the brain often remembers what it chose before and repeats it. That shortcut may help explain many everyday habits and seemingly irrational decisions.

A recent study from TUD Dresden University of Technology suggests that what people have done before can shape their current decisions more strongly than researchers previously believed. The findings offer new insight into how people make everyday choices and develop habits. The results were published in the journal Communications Psychology.

Why Familiar Choices Keep Winning

Why do people so often return to familiar choices, even when seemingly better alternatives are available? A research team led by Stefan Kiebel, Professor of Cognitive Computational Neuroscience at TUD, set out to examine that question in a large-scale study.

The researchers analyzed nine newly collected decision-making tasks along with six previously published data sets involving more than 700 participants. Their goal was to understand how people first learn the value of different options in clearly defined situations and which options they later favor when those choices are presented in new combinations.

"Our study shows that many 'irrational' preferences do not necessarily arise primarily from people storing values relative to other values, but rather from the fact that people tend to repeat actions they once preferred in a particular context. This pure repetition can later lead to a particular option still being preferred in new contexts or environments, even if there are equivalent or even better alternatives," explains lead author Dr. Ben Wagner.

Past Decisions Can Guide New Choices

The findings showed that people have a strong tendency to repeat decisions they have made before, even when those earlier choices may no longer be the best fit for the current situation.

Rather than carefully comparing the advantages and disadvantages of every available option, people may rely on memories of what they chose previously. That remembered action can serve as a mental shortcut, making the same choice more likely to happen again.

"The surprising thing was how strongly repetition alone can change preferences," explains Wagner. "Options that were chosen more frequently were not only preferred, but also rated as better."

Repetition Can Reshape Preference

The results may help explain behavior that can otherwise seem illogical in daily life. This pattern could influence shopping decisions, habits, and recurring routines, especially when people continue choosing familiar options despite the availability of equal or better alternatives.

The study also offers researchers new ways to describe human decision-making more realistically. Its findings could be useful in psychology, behavioral research, and the design of environments in which people regularly make choices.

Journal Reference:

1. Ben J. Wagner, H. Benedikt Wolf, Stefan J. Kiebel. Action repetition biases choice in context-dependent decision-making. Communications Psychology, 2025; 3 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s44271-025-00363-x