Choice

A choice is the range of different things from which a being can pick. It is a fundamental part of how we navigate the world. The process of arriving at a choice often involves specific motivators and models. Most people value freedom of choice. However, the amount of options available can change how we feel. Having too few options can cause discomfort. Having too many options can lead to confusion or reduced satisfaction. This phenomenon is often called the "paradox of choice."

Researchers categorize decisions in several ways. In 2007, Brian Tracy identified specific types of decisions. Command decisions are those that only you, as the "Commander in Chief," can make. Delegated decisions are those you allow others to make. For example, the color of a bike shed is an inconsequential choice that can be delegated. "No-brainer" decisions are those where the correct path is obvious. Avoided decisions are those where the outcome is too severe to risk. These can result in negative actions, including death. Finally, collaborative decisions are made through consultation and agreement. This collaborative approach revolutionized air-traffic safety by allowing crew members to speak up to captains.

Decisions can also be classified by their thought mechanisms. These include rational, intuitive, recognition-based, and combination methods. Another way to group choices is by the entity they impact. This includes business, personal, and consumer decisions. Politicians also make choices based on local or international effects. There is also a distinction between conscious and unconscious choice. Some influencing strategies, like brainwashing, can make an unconscious choice appear to be a conscious one. Furthermore, choices can lead to reversible or irreversible outcomes. Making irreversible, or "existential," choices may actually reduce the feeling of choice overload.

In economics, choosing between options requires judging the quality of specific attributes. This process is known as evaluability. Evaluability refers to how easily one can use information to make a judgment. Some attributes are highly evaluable, like an SAT score in the United States. Because the distribution of scores is well known, people know a 1500 is great and an 800 is bad. Other attributes are poorly evaluable. For instance, an employer might not know what 10,000 hours of homework means. This difference can cause preference reversals between joint and separate evaluations. In a 1999 study, people viewed two job candidates differently depending on how they were presented. When viewing candidates together, they gave similar salaries to both. When viewing them separately, they paid the candidate with the high GPA much more. This happened because the other candidate's experience was difficult to evaluate.

Scientists also study the "choice set size," which is the number of available options. The effect of this size on behavior is still being debated. Some studies suggest that a larger choice set increases the probability of a purchase. A 2009 study on virtual shopping found a strong "allure" to having more choices. However, other research points to the "tyranny of choice." In one experiment, people explicitly requested six sodas instead of 24. They wanted a smaller set to reduce the cognitive burden. A 2011 study found that human services workers also preferred limited options over extensive ones. As the number of options increased, the preference for limited options grew.

There are several reasons why too much choice might demotivate people. First, it creates a cognitive burden as people try to gather enough information. Second, more choices can lead to an escalation of expectation. When options increase, people's standards for a good outcome rise. Third, people may feel personally responsible for a bad result when many options exist. If there is only one choice and it fails, the world is to blame. If there are many choices and one fails, the individual feels to blame. Interestingly, a meta-analysis has questioned these findings. Some researchers argue the effect of "too many options" is actually minimal.

Personality also plays a major role in how we handle choices. Psychologists use a test to identify if someone is a "maximizer" or a "satisfier." Maximizers always seek the absolute best option from a set. This can lead to anguish because they worry they missed a better choice. Satisfiers set high standards but are content with a good choice. They place less priority on finding the single best option. A 2012 study showed that maximizers are more likely to avoid large choice sets to prevent this anguish. They also tend to prefer the ability to revise their decisions. However, research shows that making reversible decisions can actually increase regret. This is because people continue to think about the options they did not pick.