In USA Today yesterday there was an op-ed about the proliferation of choices and how that psychologically affects people. It was written by Barry Schwartz, who has authored a book on this topic: The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less.
I think the choice problem is one of those megatrends that deserves attention, as it has such a strong influence on the way we live today (particularly in the realm of decision making, as you will see below).
I quote below from the op-ed extensively, as I thought it was interesting:
But this issue of too much choice is not just a one-month-a-year problem: It happens virtually every day to virtually every American. In recent research with several colleagues, I have identified several psychological factors that may cause choice overload to diminish, or even undermine, our satisfaction with the decisions we make. As available options increase:People are more likely to regret their decisions.
People are more likely to anticipate regretting their decisions. This anticipated regret prevents people from actually deciding.
Expectations about how good the decision will be go up, and reality has a hard time meeting these high expectations.
When decisions have disappointing results, people tend to blame themselves because they feel that with so many options available, unsatisfying results must be their fault.
The choice-overload problem that pervades our daily lives often involves high-stakes decisions, such as which mutual funds to buy for retirement or which career possibilities to pursue. Inevitably, many of us are left thinking: Why even bother making a choice? No matter what choice we make, a new and better option may be right around the corner. We anticipate being disappointed before we even choose.
So, the end result is paralysis? It is such a strange feeling, that inability to make a decision. I know I certainly have felt it. I read the book Future Shock a few years ago, and I seem to recall that this paralysis or inability to make a decision is one of the symptoms.
Schwartz's prescription?
Because choice overload is pervasive, we can't expect to resolve it overnight. But we can at least be aware of how it affects our behavior, and we can try not to make it worse by succumbing to the temptation to examine every possibility before making a decision. We also can learn to be satisfied with "good enough" instead of always seeking the best, and practice being grateful for what is good in our choices rather than regretful about what is disappointing. Finally, we can avoid being seduced by the lure of choice as the answer in every situation and take advantage of the expertise of others.
I wonder if these are at all effective in the face of so much pressure against them. Look at what he prescribes: Be aware of its affect on your behavior. Learn to be satisified. Practice being grateful. These are certainly not the messages that are communicated by advertising, television, radio -- all of the media that bombard people with exactly the opposite messages all day long. I'd say that we are fighting an uphill battle here.
And what are the possible ramifications of decision making paralysis and choice overload? A desire to make the decisions/choice go away? A desire to be told what to do? A disconnection from political and social life? Apathy? Aren't we already seeing these things happen?
And I wonder if all of this "giving the consumers choices" is an institutional reaction to the same problem, where leaders pass the buck on making decisions: decisions about what features to include in a product, decisions about what taxes to raise, decisions about where to build a power plant, etc. etc. etc. But then the problem comes full circle when consumers don't buy products or refuse to vote for taxes or power plants: no decisions get made and the cycle begins again.
Perhaps this is merely a generational problem. The pace of society, of technological change -- all of these things are increasing. Perhaps only those who are growing up now, living with this reality from the day they are born, will be better able to deal with it. There is a lot of hand-wringing about the generations currently in power "passing the buck" to future generations on all of the huge challenges to come (global warming, debt, population explosion, shifiting employment practices, etc.). But, perhaps, today, we are simply incapable of solving these problems as we cannot really grok the world we live in. Perhaps only the future generations will be able to do so. Unfair, surely. Should we give up? No. One thing we can certainly do is to pay a great deal more attention to the societal aspects of technology and science and use current (and invent new) communicative methods to help understand these things and educate others about them. That is my area of interest. There are, of course, others
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