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Why too much choice is stressing us out
Areas with increased choices
- With too many options, people increasingly rely on recommendation engines to help them cope with choice.
- We pay more for the same stuff. To watch the good things on TV now involves paying monthly subscriptions to many services, where once you only had to pay a TV license.
- Privatization of companies leads to many companies offering the same service - but we still feel that we are possibly paying too much.
- Education becomes a consumer good.
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Endless choice leads to inertia
Very few of us feel competent enough to choose between an overwhelming amount of options. When you are offered 156 different kinds of retirement plans, for instance, it can make you miserable to make a competent choice. For that reason, it might be easier not to make a choice.
But even if we do make a choice, we can end up less satisfied. It is easy to imagine that you might have missed an attractive alternative.
Areas with increased choices
- With too many options, people increasingly rely on recommendation engines to help them cope with choice.
- We pay more for the same stuff. To watch the good things on TV now involves paying monthly subscriptions to many services, where once you only had to pay a TV license.
- Privatization of companies leads to many companies offering the same service - but we still feel that we are possibly paying too much.
- Education becomes a consumer good.
The ideology of choice
The ideology of choice makes us forget that not all things should be bought and sold. Moreover, more choice does not increase our happiness, security, and contentment. It does leave us overwhelmed and anxious so that we often turn to denial and willful blindness.
At least we are thinking about choice and do not merely follow the whims of the market.
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We all make bad decisions
While we may not like to admit this, we all are making a lot of bad decisions, be it our personal lives, careers or in our jobs. Here is what research says about making good decisions:
The right information, not more
If there is too much information, we tend to make the wrong decision, and even if our decision is well-researched and considered right, we end up dissatisfied.
The right information, even if less, provides clarity to make the right decision.
Gut feelings vs logic
A gut feeling, or an instinct, is often the right path, and points towards the right decision.
Ultra-rational, logical and unemotional decision-making does not guarantee that the decision taken will be the right one.
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The Freedom of Choice
The freedom of choice is generally perceived to be good, but studies show that too much choice can be a hindrance and can impede the decision.
On the contrary, having fewer choices has shown ...
Fear of Better Options
... or Maximization, is a behavioral trait that makes us look for all possible options before we decide so that we don't miss out on the best option and regret later, after making the decision.
We take into consideration all available options to minimize our frustration and stress.
Maximizers vs Satisficers
- Maximizers feel less satisfied even if they make better decisions, since they had so much choice, and choosing the best comes down to some sort of compromise.
- Satisficers: They are the people that make quick decisions with fewer options and that tend to be more satisfied.
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Network Effects
Network effects are the unseen forces that are guiding our destiny and exerting a powerful intervention on our lives, creating energy that escorts us down a path that is not always fully our intent...
Zipf's Law
Zipf's law is a mathematical probability that states that in a given set, the most frequently used data value (or word) is used twice as often as the next most common value. This is true in various statistical sets like income distribution in companies, internet traffic, phone calls received, and language.
One of the implications of this law is there are unconscious network forces and mathematical patterns governing our lives, with human beings just being nodes exchanging information.
Dinner Party Mathematics
When six to eight people are conversing at a dinner party, it is easy to focus on one conversation, but if the number is higher (say 15), then two-way conversations are more likely.
When groups get larger, the change is exponential, not linear, affecting one's social experience.
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