LAUSR

I was first introduced to the idea of decisional conflict and regret at 12 or 13 years of age. The religious studies teacher at my school described a ‘‘moral dilemma’’ that he had heard on a radio phone-in. We were asked to imagine that we were in the jungle and had stumbled across a squad of soldiers about to execute some villagers. The officer in charge offers us a deal: if we kill one villager, he would let the rest go free. The teacher told us that he would know exactly what to do: he would refuse the offer because killing breaks one of the Ten Commandments. Indeed, he said that he would have no regrets afterward, would never doubt his decision, and would sleep well. He went on to explain that this moral dilemma illustrated one of the great joys of having faith, which is that you always knew what to do. I remember thinking that I was not at all sure of what the right choice was, that I probably would always doubt my decision, and that sleep might well be hard to come by. So my first lesson in decision making was this: low decisional conflict and regret was associated with the abnegation of rational decision making; thinking through a decision and struggling with moral principles led to decisional conflict and regret.