Paradox Of Choice

We walk down an aisle in a grocery store and are instantly bombarded by thousands of choices. We spend time vacillating on our decisions. I could be at the grocery store for hours sometimes because I am so horrible at making decisions and there are just too many options!! I feel like once I get use to being a grown up and start to favor certain brands the grocery store will be less of a nightmare for me. To a certain extent I am thrilled that there are options out there because life would be so boring if they didn’t exist. Also, more options means no monopolies, so prices stay competitive; options allow you to find products that suite your needs best. On the flip side, I think that more choices have turned people into bratty consumers because now we always want more. I love variety and having the power to choose, but I hate making decisions. I feel like I am a walking oxy-moron.



Barry Schwarz talked about the official dogma revolving around maximizing a person’s welfare. This happens by maximizing individual freedom because freedom is good and valuable. This is established by maximizing choice because more choice means more freedom and more freedom means more welfare. However, Schwarz thinks more choices paralyzes us because we become less satisfied with the decisions we make. This is due to the possibility that we regret the choice we made because we had so many other choices to choose from. Whenever I go to a restaurant, where there is a large selection and variety of food, such as The Cheesecake Factory, I always regret my decision because I wish I would have made a different choice. So, even if the choice I made was delicious, I am still less satisfied. When a class I need to take has lots of options for professors, I always have a hard time deciding. If there were only one teacher then the decision is made for me, but when there are more, I feel compelled to do research and find out who is the best professor.

Schwarz also talked about the escalation of expectation. Adding options to people’s lives can’t help but increase the expectation people have about how good those options will be and that produces less satisfaction with results even when they are good results. I would have to agree with Schwarz’s opinion that the secret to happiness is low expectations. I got married over the break in Cozumel, Mexico, and my family and friends took a cruise to get there. Well, reading reviews I had gained the impression that the Carnival ship we were taking was one of the older ships and the décor was very outdated. I went into the cruise having low expectations about the actual ship and it worked wonders for me! I wasn’t disappointed at all and was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated.

Schwarz says that why choice makes people miserable is 1) regret and anticipated regret 2) opportunity costs 3) escalation of expectations and 4) self-blame. Some choice is better than none, but more choice is not necessarily better than some choice. I remember choosing which university I was going to attend and it was narrowed down to UT and A&M. I knew whatever decision I would make would be amazing, but I would have two totally different experiences. Where would I meet better friends, get a better education, what happens if my future husband chose the opposite school I did?! I was in a paradox. Every other day my senior year in high school I would change my mind because I kept regretting my decision. Thankfully, I ultimately made the right choice- Hook ‘Em Horns! Consumers are in the midst of paradoxes everyday and have to conquer their indecisiveness about what products to buy or services to use. Companies have to work extra hard to make sure their product is most satisfactory so that consumers will be repeat customers and not experience buyers remorse.