The Paradox of Choice At a supermarket, two experiments were conducted. In the first experiment, 24 different types of jam were available to freely test and buy for a discounted price. In the second experiment, only 6 different types of jam were available to freely test and buy for a discounted price.
The first experiment attracted 60% of shoppers and 3% bought jam. The second experiment attracted 40% of the shoppers and 30% bought jam. Even though more shoppers were initially attracted to more variety….
. . With less choices the supermarket was able to sell 10x the amount of jam.
This is the paradox of choice. For most people a large selection of any given product is seen as a net positive. But once the number of choices increases past a threshold, our subjective state becomes negative and leads to inner paralysis and decision fatigue.
The paradox of choice can also be found in modern day dating. In the past, you would marry people you met locally. Nowadays we have too many choices, and you may think that all that variety would make it easier to find the perfect partner, but more optimal decisions can be made when given a smaller amount of options to choose from.
When faced with a small number of options, people can easily weigh the pros and cons of each and be fairly satisfied with whichever option they chose. When faced with a large number of options, knowing which option is best becomes more difficult, the more options there are, the more chances there are of feeling regret. With More options , the more you feel the need to compare.
The attractive features of the alternatives, diminish the satisfaction in your final choice. Even if we have made an excellent decision, the opportunity costs of the other options subtract from the overall satisfaction of our choice. Too many choices also often leads to people not making any choice and giving up on the endeavor altogether.
Be sure to check out the full length series here on YouTube where we go through the most common mind traps, thinking errors, biases, effects and other phenomena that have the biggest impact on your thinking and decision making.
