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Nov. 12, 2019 Even the variety of marinades on this shelf represents the plethora of choices people have to choose from. Photo by John Yun.
Paradox of choice Having too many options leads to anxious, indecisive society John Yun
F
yunjoh000@hsestudents.org
rom marinade to laptops, many stores provide a variety of options to attract their customers. For a single product, there can be millions of varieties, each only slightly different fro one another. lthough it is a tactic used by co panies to allo custo ers to find the perfect fit for the and to increase sales, there are detri ental effects, such as an iety and indecisiveness, from having too many options. Having more choice when shopping may see beneficial because people are able to have ore control over the e act types of product they ant. or e a ple, hen so eone ants to purchase packaged chicken at grocery stores, these stores have plenty of options that can fit any dietary plan. They can purchase “free range” chickens, “pastured” chicken, “organic” chicken and many more. However, at a certain point, the diversification of options ill begin to paraly e the decision-making abilities of the consumer. This concept is ell portrayed in The arado of hoice , a book ritten by Barry ch art . n the book, ch art e plains ho that freedo of choice, ranging from trivial matters to real challenges that today’s society enjoys, has become a problem for our psychological and emotional well-being. When people are faced with making a decision involving many options, they begin to measure the trade offs of each and overthink. Because there are so many options, many people may postpone decisions or not make them at all. lthough this indecisiveness can be uni portant when choosing a salad dressing, it can have heavy tolls when you postpone which college you want to apply to and what courses you want to take because of the overwhelming options. One notable study that showed the negative effects of ultiple options as conducted by psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper.
In the study, the psychologists displayed 24 different options of gour et a on one day and displayed only si options of the gour et a on another day. Each person that sampled the jams got a coupon for off a a of their choosing. The results of the study were that the large display attracted more customers than the small numbers; However, when it came to purchasing, 30% of the people that sampled from the small variety decided to buy jam while 3% of the people that sampled from the large variety decided to buy jam. So, with the increase of jam avors, the indecisiveness of custo ers increased. Furthermore, people that make too many choices suffer fro decision fatigue, a ord made by social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister. Decision fatigue refers to the decrease in quality of decision-making as people make more and more choices. So, when people are spending all their decision-making skills on trivial things, they are unable to make great decisions when it comes to important issues. Even when a person does make a decision, there are negative effects that happen after they make their choice. If the result is not what they e pected, it can lead to an iety. eople can think that there is a better alternative to the choice they ade and regret their past actions. lso, they ay become insecure about future choices that they need to make. In a society that cherishes freedom and embraces choice, having an unlimited number of options can be viewed as almost a certain privilege. People love being able to choose what they want because it makes them feel powerful and in control of their own destiny. However, too much choice will damage our society, so we must limit the amount of trivial choices that we make and focus on the most important choices that will help us grow as humans in the future.
