The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less

When the general population was asked, most said they wanted to choose their own cancer treatment. When the same question was posed to people with cancer, they prefered to have their treatment chosen by others. We want choice, yet we really don't. The feeling of being in control of one's life is important for happiness. Yet too much choice leads to misery.

Today, we have the ability to make choices in many areas that were previously pre-determined. Many "choices" had been of the "take it or leave it" variety. You could choose to follow the local norms and practices or not. Today, there are many more options. Rather than just enter into a heterosexual relationship, you could choose among many of the LGBTQIA+ acronyms, or even go further to areas that are not yet mainstream. There are various identities available based on race, ethnicity, disability and many other areas. Instead of a local religion to follow, there are a multitude of ones to pick from. There is an option to choose and an expectation that the religion will match your desires. 

The many choices that we have leads to more challenges and less happiness. This is especially true with those that are "maximizers" rather than "satisficers". Maximizers want to always make the best choice. With the large number of different options, this is much more difficult.  There are many opportunities for the choice to be "wrong". It is much easier to look for potential ways other choices could have been better (or your choice is worse). There is also the human tendency to loss aversion which ties together with the endowment effect. Once you make a decision, you are likely to stay with it, even if you would not have chosen it with what you know now. You are also hurt more with "bad" decisions. Even the ability to reverse a decision leads to decreased happiness. Now there is another "decision" that needs to be made to potentially reverse it or keep it. You are less likely to be happy with something that you could have changed because now there are many options for it to be better.

Standards, rules, routines and presumptions help increase happiness with decisions. These limit the choices that are needed and thus make decisions easier. They help with "second order decisions" about when to make decisions. With the abundance of material prosperity, security becomes more important than overall wealth. (Money in a low-interest bank is secure, even though it won't lead to more wealth creation. However, it also won't provide as much second guessing.) Framing decisions in different ways can add to or decrease happiness. The "hedonic treadmill" can also lead us to continually seeking greater happiness. What once provided happiness no longer does. With an infinite number of choices, this is now more and more difficult.