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The old green paint on our house was chipped and fading, the color chosen years ago by the former owners. So my husband and decided to get the house painted gray with a white trim. We contacted a painter who brought us two books of paint chips with pages and pages of different shades of gray.
Wandering through what seemed like fifty shades of gray, we experienced what psychologists Barry Schwartz and Andrew Ward called “the paradox of choice” (Schwartz & Ward, 2004). Overwhelmed by all the options, it took us over a week to make our choice.
Psychologists tell us that being able to choose is a sign of autonomy and well-being (Schwartz & Ward, 2004). Americans value freedom of choice as fundamental to our democracy, essential to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” We want to be free to explore our options, free to choose where we live and work and what we buy. If choice is good, then it follows that more choice is better. Or is it?
Research has revealed that too many choices can paralyze us with indecision. Schwartz and Ward mention a supermarket that offers 285 brands of cookies, 230 soups, and 275 types of cereal. I recall the supermarket a scene in the film “Moscow on Hudson.” After years of waiting in line for coffee in Russia, a young defector played by Robin Williams, enters a New York market. Looking around frantically at all the choices in the coffee aisle and repeating “coffee, coffee, coffee,” he passes out from sensory overload.
How many choices are enough? Too much? In 1954, psychologist George Miller published an article about “the magic number seven, plus or minus two,” arguing that we can only keep 5 to 9 items in our working memory at a time. More than that and it becomes too much to manage.
Our consumer economy presents us with a dizzying array of options, but, as Schwartz and his colleagues have pointed out, people actually feel worse as their choices increase (Schwartz et al, 2002) And now the Internet offers us an endless succession of posts on social media, pop-up advertisements, videos, and links.
What’s the effect of all this? Is our culture offering us greater autonomy or distracting us from the important choices in our lives with a dizzying range of consumer choices?
Research has shown that people who “maximize”—trying to make the best possible choice from a wide range of options—experience greater depression, perfectionism, self-doubt, and regret than those who “satisfice,” accepting a result good enough to meet their desired criteria (Schwartz et al, 2002).
So the next time you are faced with what seems like an endless array of options, you might want to consider what you’re really looking for. What are the important criteria that would make you satisfied with this choice?
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This post is for informational purposes and should not substitute for psychotherapy with a qualified professional.
References
Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. The Psychological Review, 63, 81-97.
Schwartz, B., &Ward, A. (2004). Doing better but feeling worse: The paradox of choice. In P. A. Linley & S. Joseph (Eds.). Positive Psychology in Practice (pp. 86-104). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Schwartz, B., Ward, A., Monterosso, J, Lyubomirsky, S., White, K., & Lehman, D. (2002). Maximizing versus satisficing: Happiness is a matter of choice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 1178-1197.
