The pros and cons method is one of the oldest and most widely used decision-making techniques. It involves systematically listing the arguments in favor of (pros) and against (cons) each option under consideration, creating a structured overview that helps clarify thinking and facilitate comparison between alternatives.
## Historical Origins
The technique's most famous formalization comes from Benjamin Franklin, who described his approach in a 1772 letter to the scientist Joseph Priestley. Franklin called it "moral or prudential algebra": he would divide a sheet of paper in half, list reasons for and against a decision over several days, then attempt to weigh them against each other. When he found a pro roughly equal in importance to a con, he would strike both out. After this process of cancellation, whichever side had remaining items would guide his decision.
## How to Create Effective Pro/Con Lists
To get the most from this technique:
- **Be specific**: Instead of vague items like "more money," write "salary increase of approximately $15,000 per year"
- **Consider multiple timeframes**: Short-term pros may be long-term cons and vice versa
- **Include emotional and practical factors**: Both matter for a good decision
- **Take your time**: Franklin recommended gathering items over several days rather than in a single session
- **Consider perspectives**: What would different stakeholders list as pros and cons?
## Limitations
The basic pros and cons list has important limitations that decision-makers should understand:
- **Not all items are equal**: A list might show seven pros and three cons, but if the three cons are far more significant, the numbers are misleading. Treating quantity as quality is a common trap.
- **Confirmation bias**: People tend to list more items on the side they're already leaning toward, using the exercise to rationalize rather than analyze.
- **Missing weights**: Without weighting, the list provides no way to compare the relative importance of different factors.
- **Binary framing**: The pro/con format can oversimplify nuanced issues where factors exist on a spectrum.
## Enhanced Versions
Several enhanced versions address these limitations:
- **Weighted pros and cons**: Assign a numerical weight (e.g., 1-10) to each item reflecting its importance, then sum each column. This more closely resembles Franklin's original intent.
- **Decisional balance sheet**: A structured format from psychology that considers gains and losses for self, gains and losses for others, self-approval and disapproval, and social approval and disapproval.
- **Weighted decision matrix**: A more formal extension that evaluates multiple options against multiple weighted criteria.
## Relationship to Formal Analysis
Pros and cons lists sit at the informal end of the decision analysis spectrum, with formal techniques like cost-benefit analysis, decision trees, and multi-criteria decision analysis at the other end. The simple list is often a valuable first step: it externalizes thinking, ensures important factors aren't forgotten, and can reveal whether a decision is straightforward or requires more rigorous analysis.
## Value as a Thinking Tool
Perhaps the greatest value of the pros and cons technique is not the final list itself but the thinking process it triggers. The act of articulating advantages and disadvantages forces you to move beyond vague feelings and gut reactions toward explicit reasoning. Even when the list doesn't clearly point to a decision, the process of creating it often clarifies what matters most, which is itself a significant step toward a good choice.