Professor Ralph Keeney is helping Freakonimics blog readers learn to make better decisions.  Check out the Freakonomics site for Keeney’s guidance on how to make good decisions and minimize regret.

As we ring in the new year, millions of people are expected to make resolutions to improve their lives. A Duke University researcher says the consequences of some personal decisions provide important reasons to stick to those vows in the coming year.

New research conducted by Fuqua Professor Ralph L. Keeney concludes that personal decisions lead to more than one million premature deaths annually in the U.S.

Keeney’s work, published in the current issue of the INFORMS journal Operations Research, shows that personal decisions are the leading cause of death in the U.S. if one takes into account the role of obesity and smoking in creating heart disease and cancer, the primary causes of death in the U.S.

“Previous researchers have identified the main causes of heart disease and cancer as smoking and being overweight, each of which results in over 400,000 deaths annually,” Keeney said.

With the number of personal choices made in a given day, many individuals don’t take a step back to look at the long-term implications of those choices, Keeney said. From having unprotected sex to not buckling the seatbelt before driving, many of these decisions can eventually result in death. Other personal decisions that lead to significant premature deaths include overconsumption of alcohol, reckless driving, homicide and suicide.

Keeney’s results showed that more than 55 percent of all deaths for individuals aged 15 to 64 can be attributed to personal decisions that have readily available alternatives. Read the rest of this entry »