The paradox of choice

As I am writing this article, I am choosing it over watching another episode of Suits. At every moment of
our life we are making choices, should I attend macro lecture or societies’ meeting? Should I sleep or
study for an hour more? Should I take a vacation to Andaman or Ladakh this summer? Should I check my
mail while having dinner? Should I wear a white dress or a blue dress to college today? Which hairstyle
suits me the most? Where should I have my birthday bash this year BYD, The Hudson café or Cafeteria &
Co? Which laptop should I buy, Dell or Hp? Do you face these questions in your lives? Is more choice
better? Does it make us well-off? Does it increase our utility? Are we always happy after making choices
or think that the other product was better? Are you always able to make choices effortlessly or find
yourself paralysed by the choices? This article will analyse some of these issues.

Choice is what enables each person to pursue precisely those activities and choose those products that
best satisfy his or her own preferences within limits of his or her financial constraints. Choice offers us
an EXPRESSIVE VALUE, our choices reflect who we are as a person, the clothes we choose, the music we
listen to, the subject we choose etc. every person is free to choose whatever he or she likes, you may
decide to marry, I may decide to remain single. You may choose rock, I might choose country music, you
can choose Chinese, I might choose Italian. Choice is synonymous with the ideas of freedom and
autonomy. And anytime choice is restricted, there is bound to be someone, somewhere who is deprived
of opportunities to pursue something of personal value.

The progress of civilisation has been marked by a reduction in time and energy involved in activities. We
moved from hunting-gathering to agriculture, trade, and craft. As we progressed, one could focus on
one skill and exchange it for other goods. Later manufacturers and merchants made our lives simpler.
We could buy food, clothing and household items from the same store. The variety was meager but the
time spent procuring each item was minimal as well. Lately, we have been spending more time and
efforts in choosing products. Therefore, the long process of simplifying our activities has been reversed.
Walk down the aisles of a supermarket, and you will be dazzled by the varieties of jams, shampoos,
cookies, cutlery, hand washes etc. Not only this, think of buying an insurance cover, or stocks or mutual
funds or renting a hotel, there are just too many choices. Well, no doubt that choices have increased,
but the satisfaction that we derive from our chosen product has decreased.

With so many choices in hand, our EXPECTATION ESCALATES. We start anticipating subconsciously that
our chosen product should be the best in all aspects. When we fail, it leads to SELF-BLAME or what is
called BUYER’S REMORSE. Recently I bought a new cellphone. But before buying it; I was literally
confused on what aspect to give more priority to RAM or camera quality. So, I viewed a lot of websites
like gsmarena. Gadgetguru, read many reviews, consulted my tech savvy friends, watched YouTube
videos on X vs Y and then finally bought X cell phone. But some days later, after viewing some blurred
images clicked by my phone, I started wondering if Y was better. When there are a lot of alternatives, it
is easy to imagine about features of alternatives that you reject. This makes you less satisfied with the
alternative that you have chosen.
Another problem related to choice is PARALYSIS. Sometimes with thousands of options on our plate, we
fail to decide what is best for us and thus, postpone eternally the process of choosing. My father
recently decided to buy an additional term cover; rather than taking the advice of a broker he decided to
browse the internet. First, he had to choose from the many websites offering to compare the different
policies, then he had to look through various policies, he was so disgruntled that he decided to resume
his research tomorrow, but that tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet.

The growth of options and opportunities to choose has three related and unfortunate effects. First, it
implies that our decisions require more efforts. Second, we are more likely to make mistakes. Third, it
makes the pain of wrong choices very severe psychologically.

In the case of non-durables like biscuits etc, a wrong choice does not hurt us financially or emotionally
but in the case of durables like laptops, automobiles or important decisions like college, stream etc it
does, and it happens generally when we resort to our old habit of comparing with others. Choices often
lead us to be less, not more satisfied once we actually decide. There is a nagging feeling that we could
have done better. Therefore, we may choose the best product objectively but subjectively we are less
happy.

If we look at the way, choice has unfurled in our lives, we can argue that not all choice is bad. One of
the most important field is education. Now, colleges offer what the students want. In many elite
institutions like MIT, Harvard students before deciding their courses, hop from class to class taking a
demo of classes to get a feel of what the course and professor are like. Ask from people in of post-
independence era, when Bajaj Chetak, BSNL, Ambassador, HMT/sonata Doordarshan were the only
options. Surely, we don’t want those days back.

The internet is now solving the problem that it itself created. The bombardment of choices in our lives
has led to development of many business models like ZOMATO, POLICYBAZAAR and TRIVAGO etc

It might be too simple to conclude that too many choices are bad, just as it is wrong to assume that
more choices are always better. It depends on what information we are being given as we make those
choices, the type of skill and expertise we have to choose an alternative. A problem that comes with
choice overload is information overload. The decision to choose the right product then depends on our
ability to weigh, measure and sift through the information available.

There are some ways through which we can make our lives easy. We would be better off if we paid less
attention to what people around us were doing; we would be better off if we lowered our expectations
about the result of the decision; we would be better off seeking what was “good enough” instead of
seeking the “best”.

We want more choices but given more choices we are not able to decide what is best for us. Herein, lies
the paradox of choice.

By-Pallavi Jain