The paradox of choice is that while we might think that more choice would make us happy, the reality is that it often doesn’t. Despite the heightened sense of freedom and autonomy that comes with more choice, we might grow tired of making choices. This is known as decision fatigue and, if we do make a choice, we might feel unsure about it and experience post-purchase angst.
But why do people do this?
To better grasp the paradox of choice, we must understand these two negative consequences of choice.
1) Decision fatigue occurs when we grow tired of trying to choose and make decisions, often leading us to simply stick with the status quo or delay our decision
2) Post-purchase ‘angst’ refers to the sense of worry we may experience after having made a decision in a context with choice overload, questioning ourselves about whether the decision we made was the right one
Paradox of Choice Illustrated
In the last 100 years, we have increasingly faced more choice; just walk into your local supermarket and you’ll surely be faced with a wide variety of very similar products! In 1949 the average grocery store stocked 3,700 products. By 2010, the average supermarket had around 45,000 products. The internet has further compounded this. There’s a vast amount of choice on a single retail platform such as Amazon or eBay and there are also multiple online retailers to choose from.
This often-overwhelming proliferation of choice in our daily lives has prompted many researchers to challenge the conventional view that more choice always makes us happier and increases our welfare.
So, is the answer to simply reduce choice and the number of options available to consumers? Not necessarily…
Latest research suggests that for particular items we may still welcome more choice. In fact, a recent analysis of all the research into the paradox of choice shows there is, on average, a zero effect. This means in some cases more choice is preferred, and in others it is not.
Furthermore, several studies that tried to replicate previous findings of choice overload – both in similar and different contexts – found varying results. Therefore, it would be false to say that choice overload always exists, but it is equally false to say that it never exists!
So, more accurately, less choice may be preferred under certain specific circumstances:
- People are not sure exactly what they like and do not like, and are thus unsure of their preferences
- People are not familiar with the options available
- The options are – or feel – similar with no clear better option
- The options are difficult to evaluate or compare
- When choosing a more utilitarian, necessity product – as opposed to a more luxury or hedonistic product
Where people truly are overwhelmed by choice, Sheena Iyengar, Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, points to four effective strategies that can help reduce choice paralysis and promote optimal decision-making:
- Reduce the amount of choice
- Make the consequences of each choice clear, ideally in a vivid way
- Structure and categorise choice effectively
- Start with the easy choices before moving to the more complex choices
Each of these four strategies enables cognitive strain to be reduced. This makes it more likely that we will pick something and feel happy about our choice. For example, Amazon hosts many different products and options. However, they don’t overwhelm consumers by displaying these all at once. Amazon broadly categorise their items, allow consumers to filter across various well-defined categories, suggest items that similar consumers have purchased, recommend products, and limit the number of listed products per page – all of which work to reduce the cognitive strain around the choice that their consumers face.
Indeed, remembering that less can often be more, and to think hard about how exactly we present several choices, can reap positive outcomes and make for happier consumers!
So, what does this all mean?
For researchers to truly understand how consumers are making choices, exploring what type of choice they are faced with is critical to decipher if – and how – the paradox of choice might be relevant. Factors such as whether consumers are familiar with the options available, whether they are an expert or a novice in that category, choosing a necessity versus a luxury product, or how similar each option feels are key. Only when we know how someone views a choice can we take useful steps to improve and enhance their experience.
NEXT IN THE SERIES: Every three weeks The Behavioural Architects will put another cognitive bias or behavioural economics concept under the spotlight. Our next article features the concept of mental accounting.
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System 1 & 2
Heuristics
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Inattentional blindness
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Social norms part 1
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Commitment bias
Affect Heuristic
