The Choice Deluge
Choices galore in the modern internet enabled world. We are inundated with choices every waking minute of our lives. And even for sleeping, we have endless choices in the kind of mattress we want to sleep on, to the kind of beds, the temperature of the room, the fragrances, the chamomile tea right before bed time, the sleep meditations and the white noise playlists and what not.
The list is endless.
It all stems from the belief that more choice is good for us. And indeed, as consumers we also feel more in control when we have more choices. We feel empowered when we have more options to choose from.
But there is growing evidence that with more and more options to choose from we often succumb to decision fatigue and just go with the default option.
And if by some miracle we do end up making the right choice, the level of satisfaction we feel from the choice is lowered because the regret possibilities are so high.
We are never sure if we made the right decision or not, always second guessing ourselves on the possible outcomes of the other options.
This happens in every purchase we make these days, or even the movies we want to watch on Netflix, or it happens the most when we are taking big life decisions like getting married or switching jobs.
Dr Barry Schwartz argues in his Ted Talk that endless choice is harming us more than its helping us.
He says it has made us more paralyzed than free, more dissatisfied than happy, and more restless than at peace.
Its a 13 year old Talk, and it relevance has only increases manifold over time.
Check it out —
The Paradox of Choice | Barry Schwartz
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