Choice Paralysis Strikes Again
Here I am again.
Standing in the frozen desserts aisle at my grocery store—utterly perplexed by the countless ice cream flavors that are staring back at me.
My eyes begin to scan left, right, up, and down, every which way, looking for the one as if my life depended on this exact moment. There are at least 100 different alluring brands, each selling its own unique versions of cookies and cream, salted caramel, chocolate brownie, snickerdoodle, caramel macchiato, peanut butter cup...ok, you get where I’m going.
Or maybe you don’t because there’s also mint chocolate chip, oreo cookie dough, rocky road, butter pecan, vanilla bean, English toffee, strawberry cheesecake, french vanilla, honey almond, pistachio, and don’t forget mocha!
The options are endless, I tell you.
Alas, I zero in on some healthier options….maybe I’ll go for frozen yogurt? I’ve been trying to lose 10 pounds for a couple of years now. Hold on a second, they’re making dairy-free ice cream now? I start reading the nutritional facts and notice the lower calorie count. This one’s better for me…it says it right there on the box. This is the one.
Just when I feel good about my decision, I gaze back into the freezer window and lock eyes with a container of Talenti’s chocolate hazelnut gelato. Wow, that looks amazing.
My phone starts buzzing, freeing me from this stupid staring match. Me and the Talenti—there are no winners here. Around this time, I notice that I’ve been standing there for ten minutes, frozen in the decision-making process.
Unhappy about how long this is taking me, I grab a pint of Halo Top’s 280 calories, dairy-free, caramel macchiato ice cream and drop it into my shopping cart. Mentally drained, I check out at the register. When I get home and take my much-anticipated bite into my chosen pint of ice cream, regret unfolds as it gushes down my throat. Underwhelmed, I start fantasizing about Talenti’s chocolate hazelnut gelato. I realize I made the wrong decision. FOMO settles in as I bury myself deeper into my sad comfy couch.
Talk about first world problems. How much more pathetic could this scenario get? But let’s face it—hundreds of flavors and brands and alternative options, it’s a lot to digest.
That moment in the grocery store where I was unable to make a quick decision? It has a word to it.
It’s called choice paralysis.
American psychologist, professor of economics, and author of The Paradox of Choice; Barry Schwartz explains this modern phenomenon in an enlightening TED talk:
“We all know what’s good about it, so I’m going to talk about what’s bad about it. All of this choice has two effects, two negative effects on people. One effect, paradoxically, is that it produces paralysis, rather than liberation. With so many options to choose from, people find it very difficult to choose at all…You really want to get the decision right if it’s for all eternity, right? You don’t want to pick the wrong mutual fund or the wrong salad dressing. So that’s one effect. The second effect is that even if we manage to overcome the paralysis and make a choice, we end up less satisfied with the result of the choice than we would be if we had fewer options to choose from. And there are several reasons for this. One of them is that with a lot of different salad dressings to choose from, if you buy one, and it’s not perfect — and what salad dressing is? — it’s easy to imagine you could have made a different choice that would have been better. And what happens is this imagined alternative induces you to regret the decision you made, and this regret subtracts from the satisfaction you get out of the decision you made, even if it was a good decision. The more options there are, the easier it is to regret anything at all that is disappointing about the option that you chose.”
This is some seriously profound sh*t. Our strange and marvelous psyche never fails to surprise us. Counterintuitively, the more choices we have, the fewer decisions we actually make. Having too many choices can literally be debilitating. In theory, having a lot of choices sounds wonderful. And it most definitely can be. Being able to have that amount of freedom in anything and everything should be liberating. Yet in practice, no matter how long we take to make the right choice, we end up feeling regret and dissatisfaction in the end. Is this the human condition?
In a well-known study about choice, two psychologists from Colombia University conducted a social experiment using jams at a farmer’s market. They set up a display table with 24 varieties of gourmet jam to sample for customers. On a different day, customers sampled only six varieties of the jam. The table with the more jams successfully attracted more people than the table with fewer jams. But here’s the kicker: the sample of 6 jams resulted in 30% of its customers to make a purchase while the sample of 24 only brought in 3%.
What does all this tell us?
It tells us that when we have too many choices, we either make a bad one or none at all. Repeatedly, similar studies have proven the same exact outcomes. Whether it’s ice cream or jam, mutual funds, or a new house—we make more decisions when we are given fewer options.
More importantly, having higher quantities of options can result in overthinking and discontent with any decision we make. Although having many choices makes us feel like we are living a life of luxury, it has the power to negatively impact our overall life satisfaction.
One way to combat choice paralysis and the regret that follows is to limit your options. And if you’re anything like me, just stop overthinking everything. Not only will you find yourself truly free from the perils of FOMO, but you will make better decisions and as a result, be a happier person.