Decision Paralysis Essay

Choice Overload, or Decision Paralysis

There is no denying that the majority of people in developed societies are faced with an abundance of choice. On average, every American makes about 70 decisions per day.

It is a common assumption in the modern society that the more choices we have, the better: that the human ability to manage and the human desire for choice is infinite. From classic economic theories of free enterprise, to modern marketing practices that provide customers with entire aisles devoted to jams or detergents, to important life decisions in which people contemplate alternative career options or multiple investment opportunities, this belief pervades our institutions, norms, and customs. http://www.columbia.edu/~ss957/articles/Choice_is_Demotivating.pdf

The larger the number of alternatives to be considered, the greater the effort required to identify and evaluate them. The problem of decision paralysis is closely connected to the other problem which is know as decision fatigue.

The problem of decision fatigue affects everything from the careers of top executives to the prison sentences of felons appearing before exhausted judges. It influences the behavior of everyone, executive and non executive, every day. (Roy Baumeister and John Tierney “Willpower: rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength)''

Let us consider the simplest example of the decision fatigue. After the long grocery shopping process in the huge supermarket, consumers suffer from it. Retailers capitalize on this and place impulse buys, such as gum and candy, right next to cashiers – as John Tierney says, just before the finishing line of the decision marathon. John Tierney “Do You Suffer from Decision

The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts, usually in either of two very different ways. One shortcut is to become reckless: to act impulsively instead of mulling over all the consequences. The other shortcut is the ultimate energy saver: do nothing. Instead of spending energy on considering all the possible options, avoid any choice at all. Postponing making a decision often creates bigger problems in the long run, but for the moment, it eases the mental strain. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html?pagewanted=all Probably the most well known experiment investigating the issue of decision fatigue is the following one. In a research study published by the National Academy of Sciences, psychologists examined the factors that impact whether or not a judge approves a criminal for parole.

The researchers examined 1,112 judicial cases over a 10-month period. All of the rulings were made by a parole board judge, who was deciding whether or not to allow the criminal to be released from prison on parole. (In some cases, the criminal was asking not for a release, but for a change in parole