Andrew May on the TODAY Show, Channel 9, SydneyMonday, July 23, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
Paradox of Choice
Andrew May on the TODAY Show, Channel 9, SydneyThe Paradox of Choice
The shelves of supermarkets and shops are bulging with new choices, new brands and new products. But does the smorgasbord of options make us happy or is it turning us into a society paralysed by indecision?
Drinking milk as a kid
Remember when you went to the shops as a kid to buy some milk? My very first memories of buying milk – there was only one type – full cream. Then the milkman started delivering milk with two different coloured caps – red for full cream and yellow for low fat, very fancy. Fast-track a few years and we then had the choice of Skim or Lite White at the local corner store. Even that seemed pretty chic at the time. Last week I took a notepad to the supermarket (yeah I know, I probably should get some more interesting hobbies) and counted all of the different varieties of milk available at the supermarket. 41 different types of milk!
Vanilla to 212 types of ice-cream
Not finished with my counting experiments in the dairy section, I moved onto the really good stuff – the ice-cream. Now I can clearly remember as a kid when mum first bought a tub of Neapolitan home. Wow! We couldn’t believe our luck, three ice-creams in one. I love strawberry, my sister loves vanilla, dad loves chocolate and my brother loves all three. We were in ice-cream heaven. Back in the supermarket, after a quick count in the ice-cream section there are an unbelievable 212 different flavours, blends and combinations. If you think choosing ice cream is hard, then try sifting through 114 different options of breakfast cereal. There were even 10 different varieties of apples, so many choices just to keep the doctor away!
Disconcerted by denim
I was recently in New York and decided to wander into Abercrombie and Fitch to buy myself a new pair of denim jeans. ‘Would you like stone-wash, acid-wash, dirty-denim, distressed-denim or classic-denim?’ the super-attractive assistant named Claire asked above the background noise of disco music. ‘What type of fit are you after - relaxed fit, slim fit, baggy fit or extra baggy fit?’ And were you after straight leg, square cut, boot cut, cuffed jeans or classic cut?’ I must have looked totally lost as I just stared at Claire to try and make sense of the date-deluge I had just been sprayed with. ‘Don’t forget you can also choose between button-fly or zipper fly!’ she piped up gregariously.
90 minutes later I must have tried on more than 20 different types of jeans and I couldn’t decide which one I wanted. I ended up walking out of the shop empty handed and thought about finding a nearby pharmacy to grab some headache tablets.
The Paradox of Choice
No wonder we are getting more and more confused. With so many alternatives how can we possibly know what to choose? Barry Schwartz, in his book The Paradox of Choice, talks about ‘choice overload’. Anyone who has sifted through hundreds of cable TV options, 29 different types of mobile phone plans, trying to decide on a health-care plan, or trying to buy a pair of jeans knows exactly what this means.
A bewildering array of choices floods our exhausted brains, ultimately restricting instead of freeing us. We normally assume that more options will make us happier, but Schwartz argues the opposite is true, explaining that having all these choices actually goes so far as to erode our psychological well-being.
Choice and happiness
Researchers all over the world have been trying to measure happiness for decades, with the most widely used format called the ‘Satisfaction with Life Scale’. What has become increasingly obvious from these studies is that once a society’s level of per capita wealth crosses a threshold from poverty to adequate subsistence (about $20,000 AUS per person per year), further increases in national wealth has almost no effect on happiness. There are as many happy people in Poland as Japan – even though the average Japanese is 10 times richer than the average Pole! Being connected to others is much more important to subjective wellbeing than being rich or having abundance of choice.
Cutting down options makes it easier
Sheen Iyengar, a psychologist from Columbia University conducted a well known experiment a few years back. She set up a tasting booth of exotic gourmet jams near a fashionable grocery store in California. Some days 24 different types of jams were on display. Conventional wisdom tells us that the more choices available, the more people are likely to find something they like and therefore buy. Iyengar actually found the opposite to be true.
‘33% of those who stopped by the 6 choice booth ended up buying some jam, while only 3 percent of those who stopped by the 24 choice booth bought anything’.
Malcolm Gladwell points out ‘if you are given too many choices, if you are forced to consider much more than your unconscious is comfortable with, you get paralysed’.
Solutions for making it easier to choose
1. write a list of what you want and stick to it
2. set a timeline so you don’t get stuck shopping all day
3. ask family and friends for their shopping tips
4. buy items that compliment each other
5. remember the most expensive brands are not always the best
Reference sources
The Paradox of Choice, Why more is less. Barry Schwartz
Blink, Malcolm Gladwell
Spoilt for Choice, David Dale, Sydney Morning Herald, July, 2005.
Monday, July 9, 2007
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