FOR MORE GREAT STORIES, VISIT COSMO.IN APRIL 2018 COSMOPOLITAN 85I forgo buying any jam at all.”
This isn’t Sheena’s first foray into
jam-based research. She conducted
one experiment where she presented
food shoppers with two displays—
one with 24 types of jam and another
display of just six jams. She found
that the larger display attracted
60 percent of shoppers, whereas only
40 percent of subjects visited the
smaller one. In the end, however, a
third of visitors to the smaller stall
bought jam, but only three percent
of people at the larger stall made a
purchase. As Sheena outlines in her
book, The Art Of Choosing, while
we’re attracted to the concept of lots
of choice, in reality, our brains are
more comfortable with fewer options.
CHASING PERFECTION
My friend and former inveterate
shopper Aneesha, 27, understands
this. “Shopping used to be a leisure
activity, but it gives me the horrors
now,” she says. “Malls are so big these
days that saying, ‘I like this skirt,
but I want to see if there’s anything
better’ is pointless, because chances
are you’ll get hungry and tired before
you’ve completed a circuit. There’s
nothing like having low blood sugar
in Zara and realising your perfect
skirt is in H&M, two blocks back.”
The quest for this mythical ‘perfect’
item is part of the problem. In his
TED talk, The Paradox of Choice,
psychologist Barry Schwartz argued
that living in an age of plenty ramps
up our expectations. He illustrated
this point not with jam, but salad
dressing. “If you buy one salad
dressing and it’s not perfect, it’s easy
to imagine you could have made
a different choice that would have
been better,” he says. “This imagined
alternative induces you to regret
your decision, which subtracts from
the satisfaction you get from the
decision you made—even if it was
a good one.”
I relate this to another friend,
Mehak, who recently gave up online
dating because there were just too
many men. “Once I’d ruled out the
ones I didn’t like, the ‘maybes’ all
seemed equally dateable. But every
time I met up with one of them, I
couldn’t help doubting my choice,
no matter how well it went. Once, a
guy and I had loads in common, but
the conversation was a little stilted
at first, so while he was in the loo, I
made another date and spent the rest
of the evening distracted. “I think
if I’d let that one mature and not
worried so much about missing out
on the ‘perfect’ guy, we might have
had something.”
Dr Barry says the secret to
happiness is low expectations. If we
feel we’re not living our best possible
life, we think it must be our fault,
because everything is available.
This sort of attitude contributes to
a culture of depression and it does
nothing to help people with existing
mental-health problems.
Aparna Gupta, 29, suffers from
anxiety and depression. When it gets
particularly bad, her ability to make
decisions is one of the first things to
suffer. “Simple questions such as,
‘Where will we order dinner from?’
spiral out of control,” she says. “It
becomes, ‘Why don’t I know what Iwant?’ and then, ‘How stupid am I?’
and morphs into a messed-up series
of inner attacks.”
The irony, says Dr Barry, is that no
matter how dissatisfied we are with
our choices, they’re probably not all
that bad. “People have experiences
that are ‘disappointing’ because their
standards are so high.”THE BIGGER PICTURE
So, how do we address the paralysis
that comes with being overwhelmed
by choice? It’s all about perspective,
says Sheena. “How important is it
that you order the ‘right’ dinner?”
“But also consider what it can
mean if you look into smarter
investment options today, rather
than tomorrow or next year. In 40
years’ time, that choice could turn
out to mean a lot.”
She also advises reducing the
number of choices you make.
Facebook Founder Mark
Zuckerberg famously wears the
same T-shirt-and-jeans outfit every
day—simply because he feels his
multi-billion-dollar decision-making
skills are best applied beyond his
wardrobe.
“I really want to clear my life so
that I have to make as few decisions
as possible about anything except
how to best serve this community,”
he said in his first public Q&A.
If a daily uniform is too much for
you, Dr Barry suggests limiting the
number of shops or websites you
shop from. “Learn to be satisfied
with ‘good enough’. This doesn’t
mean settling. You can still have
high standards—that’s manageable
in a world of hyperchoice. Always
seeking the ‘best’ is not.”
Sheena’s final words on the matter
are eminently practical. “Make the
consequences of your choices as
salient as possible. We simply need
to be smart about where and how
we invest our ‘choosing’ energy—be
choosy about choosing.”
And in a world of infinite
choice, that seems to be the best
choice of all. nSMART WAYS TO
AVOID OVER-CHOICE
PARALYSIS1
Make ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’
your general mantra. Your local
takeaway knowing your order off by
heart might not be such a bad thing.2
Birthday looming? Ask for
vouchers from your favourite
shop, not money. Only being able
to shop in one place can really help
focus the mind...3
Ask your friend what she’s
having before you order in
a restaurant, then simply copy
her. Overchoice and food envy,
conquered in a single choice.4
Cancel Netflix. Just think of the
hours you’d save if you were just
limited to your DVD collection.