Complex decisions solved better by unconsious than by conscious thought

Ap Dijksterhuis et al. , Univ. of Amsterdam, had a group of students read a comparison of many different aspects of four different cars. They were told they had 4 minutes to choose the best deal and divided into two groups. One group was distracted by being given anagrams to solve during this period. It did better at the choice that the group that spent the 4 minutes consciously thinking about it.