Decision

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A decision is a final product of the specific mental/cognitive process of an individual or a group of persons/organizations which is called decision making, therefore it is a subjective concept. It is a mental object and can be an opinion, a rule or a task for execution/application.

More precisely speaking, a mental object D is a decision if it was obtained by a conscious choice of only one opinion or one action (from a known set called alternatives), and it is designated for an application.

Decisions at times are influenced by factors that have almost nothing to do with surrounding reality or material facts. For example superstition may play a significant role in decision making, and so are other beliefs such as numerology, astrology, and many other forms of similar unscientific and perhaps even spiritual standards. Decisions can also be made by AI computer programs and autonomous robots. That what essentially influence a decision is the set of alternatives available for a decision-maker and choice criteria applied.

In different human activity domains, decision has many local meanings, for example,

• in law,
  • a decision is the outcome of a legal case
  • a per curiam decision by a court with multiple judges
  • a landmark decision is the outcome of a case which sets a legal precedent
  • a type of European Union legislation
• in statistics and economics, the attempt to make an optimal decision is called decision theory
• in boxing, a result arrived at by the judges
• in professional wrestling, a decision is a means by which a wrestler scores a point against his opponent.

[edit] Remarks

• Specially important decisions are those which have normative long-term or order/task character, and intend to influence different human communities, for example, political decisions.
• Decision-making capacity is considered as a necessary and sufficient attribute of an intelligence- Ref..
• Many decisions can be connected in decision trees.