Abstract
In this chapter, we discuss how human decision-making varies as a function of individual facets of the person as well as constructive elements inherent to the decision task. To address our thesis, we provide an overview of theories on decision-making, focusing on the components that involve thinking and the role of human variability. We then highlight research addressing how thinking may influence decision-making outcomes. We focus our analysis on two essential ways in which all humans vary, i.e., cognition and age, and show how variability in both can depict differences in thinking propensity and produce identifiable and predictable differences in decision-making performance. Finally, we review contemporary research from our labs that provide insight into the emerging view of thinking and decision-making. In our final summary, we provide an overall model to assist in organizing and interpreting how a person’s level of thinking interacts with varying levels of decision complexity to yield predictable performance differences in decision-making.