Indecision by Ophelia Deroy & Bahador Bahrami

Peter Tallack

Bloomsbury (US)/Bodley Head (UK)

PUBLICATION Autumn 2024

Manuscript due June 2023

90,000 words

• UK & Commonwealth (Bodley Head) • US & Canada (Bloomsbury US) • China (China Translation and

Publishing House) • France (Flammarion) • Germany (Droemer Knaur) • Italy (Bollati Boringhieri) • Japan (Tatsumi) • Netherlands (Business Contact) • Russia (Mann, Ivanov and Ferber) • Spain (Urano)

Indecision is a fact of life. Yet until recently, psychologists have largely ignored the subject. We’ve been sold the idea that decisions are good, whereas indecision is bad – a sign of incompetence, weakness of will, overthinking or confusion.

In INDECISION, two leading psychologists flip this decision mindset on its head. Drawing on their ground-breaking research, Ophelia Deroy and Bahador Bahrami reveal the hidden – often counterintuitive – benefits of deciding nothing rather than something. They show how procrastination can boost your confidence and how being undecided can give you leverage in negotiations. They explain how although having many options gives us the illusory promise of flexibility, we prefer fewer choices when we at heart desire satisfaction. And they let readers in on the ultimate mind hack: flipping a coin.

Filled with surprising takeaways and entertaining anecdotes, INDECISION offers insight on issues ranging from online dating, parenting and healthcare, to undecided voters, the gig economy, vaccine hesitancy and human egg freezing. Challenging decades of thinking that equates being decisive with being successful, it is an essential guide for living in our complex times.

Ophelia Deroy specializes in philosophy of mind and cognitive neuroscience and is an expert on inner conflict. She holds professorships in the Munich Center for Neurosciences and the Faculty of Philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.

Bahador Bahrami is a former medical doctor and an expert in social neuroscience. He directs the Crowd Cognition Lab in the Faculty of Psychology at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and is a professor of social neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London.