Choice Anxiety - When More Is Less

Photo Credit:  Jeans and Roses We love having choice. We are told that more choice means more freedom. But is it really freedom  to  be...

Photo Credit: Jeans and Roses
We love having choice. We are told that more choice means more freedom. But is it really freedom to be overwhelmed by a dozen brands of yoghurt at the supermarket? By too many styles of jeans (and pretty much everything else) at H&M and Uniqlo? Ultimately, is the effort used in making these menial decisions actually adding value to your life?

 Decision-making is mentally draining. Studies show that there is a point at which our decision-making capacity reaches saturation. After this point, having more choice does not make us happier. In fact, it has the opposite effect - an overabundance of choice can lead to anxiety, fear and even depression for fear of making the wrong choice (see works by psychologists David Myers and Robert Lane and Columbia Business Prof Sheena Iynengar). 

It has been found that we find it harder to make decisions, the more decisions we make.  This is known as decision fatigue. Even more interesting is that our capacity for self-control, discipline, focus and problem-solving all come from the same mental reservoir as decision making. In other words, if you are bombarded by too much choice - therefore forced to make too many decisions - your willpower and focus also suffer. Have you wondered why supermarkets place small add-on items at the check-out? Having to make countless tedious decisions in the supermarket aisles primes us perfectly to impulsively buy a random chocolate bar. 

 These studies show us that we are limited in how many good decisions we can make at any given time. Beyond this, we get confused, distracted and anxious. If our mind is filled everyday with trivial decisions (which shoes to wear, bag to carry or brand of muesli to buy), what mental capacity is left for focus, self-control and making decisions about important life things?

I like chairs. Iconic designs on display at le Bon Marché, Paris 

 A way to avoid the burden of too much choice is to intentionally limit the choices we need to make. As Barack Obama tells Vanity Fair:

"You'll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I'm trying to pare down decisions. I don't want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make."   

 Having choice is undeniably important and empowering; however, there can be too much of a good thing. If we choose to have less choice in mundane things, such as the meals we eat, our outfits or the things we have to buy, we free our minds for more important things. As artist Hans Hofman famously said:

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak"

 Want to dig deeper?


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1 comments

  1. Unknown10 February 2016 at 04:59

    Freedom is a distraction. But really freedom is a matter of independent opinion and more a kind of ability to make decisions according to one's identity, nevertheless this independent thought may not really be so independent. For example, does having access to a variety of goods force you to choose between one or more form of identity? Maybe it is difficult to guess which one is true, especially if the whole world tells you what values are appropriate and what are not. - who do you listen to? What form of identity do you listen to?

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