They're not screwing up only decisions that don't matter, they're also screwing up decisions that don't matter to them. But many of those decisions matter quite a lot! The entire phenomenon of bike-shedding happens due to people focusing on the wrong things: things that they can trivially and lazily understand. Bike-shedding was first observed and described in the context of people designing nuclear power generating stations.
So in summary, some of the decisions people make are very important. Some of the people making those decisions are screwing them up because they are dumb, with rushing being a contributing but not exclusive factor, a factor that applies just as much in real life as it does in studies.
'A bat and a ball cost $110 in total.
The bat costs $100 more than the ball.
How much does the ball cost?
The answer is $5.
Please enter the number 5 in the blank below.
$_____'
That question is from one of 59 new studies (N = 72,310) which focus primarily on the “bat and ball problem," found in The formation and revision of intuitions - ScienceDirect by Andrew Meyer and Shane Frederic.
23% of respondents failed to give the correct answer.
I don't have anything insightful to say but wanted to share because it seems worth knowing.
Additionally, I'm not exactly sure how (and how much) I should update about this.
(Edit: I initially posted the wrong question)