Do more choices make us happier by helping us find the ‘perfect’ choice, or only leave us more confused. Understand why too many choices can lead to buyer paralysis and buyer remorse, and how when it comes to choices, less may in fact be more.
What is the Paradox of Choice?
The Paradox of Choice implies that often the more choices we have, the less happy we are with our eventual decision. There are 4 main elements of the Paradox of Choice
- Paralysis – What should I pick?
- Opportunity Cost – Maybe I should have picked the other one?
- Escalation of Expectations – Expectations multiply with more choices
- Self Blame – I knew I picked the wrong one
There are 2 main types of people, when it comes to the Paradox of choice
- Maximizers – who wish to maximize the value of every decision, and do very thorough research in an aim to make the perfect choice. This group is often most likely to face post buyer paralysis and post-purchase remorse.
- Satisfiers – who are willing to settle for a choice that is good enough. They tend to be happier and waste less time worrying over every decision.
The Paradox of choice has important takeaways from a happiness and a marketing perspective
- From a happiness perspective, this explains why people who embrace minimalism or a simpler lifestyle are often happier.
- From a marketing perspective, is that it is best to limit the amount of options we present our customers, to prevent them from going into buyer paralysis and post-purchase remorse.
Advice from the Masters – Paradox of Choice
The fact that some choice is good doesn’t necessarily mean that more choice is better
Learning to choose is hard. Learning to choose well is harder. And learning to choose well in a world of unlimited possibilities is harder still, perhaps too hard.
The alternative to maximizing is to be a satisficer. To satisfice is to settle for something that is good enough and not worry about the possibility that there might be something better
The existence of multiple alternatives makes it easy for us to imagine alternatives that don’t exist—alternatives that combine the attractive features of the ones that do exist. And to the extent that we engage our imaginations in this way, we will be even less satisfied with the alternative we end up choosing. So, once again, a greater variety of choices actually makes us feel worse.
Part of the downside of abundant choice is that each new option adds to the list of trade-offs, and trade-offs have psychological consequences
Barry Schwartz – Author – The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
Columbia Jam Study: A classic study by Columbia’s Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper monitored the behavior of consumers in a grocery store. One day, the store set up a sampling table with 6 different kinds of jam, and customers loved it; another day, the store set up a table with 24 different kinds of jam, and it was even more popular than the first. The surprise came at the cash register: Customers who’d chosen among 6 jams were 10 times more likely to actually buy a jar of jam than customers who’d chosen among 24! It was fun to sample 24 flavors, it seems, but painful to pick among them. The choice was paralyzing.
Chip Health – Author – Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work
Recommended Books – Paradox of Choice
Videos – Paradox of Choice
The paradox of choice | Barry Schwartz
The TED talk by Barry Schwartz, the author and creator of ‘Paradox of Choice’, that explains why the modern concept of having greater freedom of choices, actually leads to negative outcomes for people – in terms of happiness, decision paralysis and regrets.
The Paradox of Choice Explained: Why You’re Unhappy With Your Decisions
Understand the 4 elements that lead to the Paradox of Choice – Paralysis / Opportunity Cost / Escalation of Expectations / Self Blame, and how these lead to you being unhappier with your decisions when you are presented with too many choices.
Other concepts on Happiness, Minimalism, Sales & Marketing
Buyer Psychology
People buy with emotions, and later justify with logic. We like to think of ourselves and logical, rational creatures but in reality our decisions are driven by our emotions, feelings and biases. There are a large number of psychological tricks that can be used to help a person agree to whatever it is that you wish them to do.
Letting Go
We often place much greater importance to things, than they really deserve. By practicing the art of letting go, we gain a great degree of freedom from thoughts, emotions and things that prevent us from realizing our true selves.
Desires & Expectations
We link our happiness to the fulfillment of our desires & expectations, only to raise the bar once we achieve what we desired. Contrary to our beliefs, do our desires & expectations serve as an obstacle (as compared to a key) to the happiness that we seek?
Other People’s Audience
Your own reach is always going to be limited, especially in contrast to the tremendous reach of the top media houses and influencers in your field. Other Person’s Audiences, is a digital marketing concept, that focuses on how you can best leverage the reach others (especially influencers and media) have to market your content or services.