Make Better, Smarter Decisions and Transform Your Life

A new documentary from Emmy-winning producer Infield Fly Productions, Decisions, Decisions: The Science of Choice, premieres Thursday 5 March at 9pm on CBC TV’s The Nature of Things, CBC Gem and The Nature of Things YouTube Channel.

Captain John Robbins of the Richmond Hill Fire Department inside a burning building training to make considered decisions at intuitive speeds.

Host Anthony Morgan takes cameras into a blazing house fire, onto the street to conduct a series of street experiments and inside his brain to reveal the latest discoveries in the field of decision science and how they can transform our lives.

Every day we make countless decisions, potentially thousands each hour. But it turns out we humans don’t always make good decisions. The result is an explosion of research into the science of choice that affects us all.

Taking to the streets with top decision scientists, Morgan asks volunteers to estimate the height of Toronto’s CN Tower, takes them speed dating, and serves them free burgers to uncover, in a clever and entertaining way, how easily our choices can be manipulated.

Morgan also transports us into the heart of a burning building as firefighters train to make considered decisions at intuitive speeds and reveals how we can do the same (minus the burning building) to improve our ability to play an instrument, drive a car or beat our buddies at pick-up basketball.

Decisions, Decisions takes cameras inside Morgan’s brain to show decision-making in action. Using fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging), we see what’s happening in his ventromedial prefrontal cortex, discover how poor his food choices are and find out how he can take some simple steps to make better decisions about what he eats.

Good decision-making affects everything we do. Decisions, Decisions reveals how we can all make better choices and fundamentally change our lives.

Decisions, Decisions: The Science of Choice is directed, written and co-produced by Monika Demos with Executive Producer Dugald Maudsley, Producer Gillian Main, and Editor Ken Yan. For CBC, Sally Catto is General Manager, Entertainment, Factual, & Sports; Jennifer Dettman is Executive Director, Unscripted Content; Sandra Kleinfeld is Senior Director, Documentary; Alexandra Lane is Senior Director of Production, Unscripted Content; and Lesley Birchard is Executive in Charge of Production, CBC The Nature of Things.