Too Many Choices Can Overwhelm Us And

When I Do Have Choice I Try To Be Very Picky About... Or Shall I Say Choosey About When I Choose. I Don't Automatically Decide That I Must Be The One To Choose Or That It's Important For Me To Make Every Choice In My Life.

When We Speak Of Choice, What We Mean Is The Ability To Exercise Control Over Ourselves And Our Environment. In Order To Choose, We Must First Perceive That Control Is Possible.

People Will Make Worse Financial Decisions For Them If They're Choosing From A Lot Of Options Than If They're Choosing From A Few Options. If They Have More Options They're More Likely To Avoid Stocks And Put All Their Money In Money Market Accounts, Which Doesn't Even Grow At The Rate Of Inflation.

About 60% Of The People Stopped When We Had 24 Jams On Display And Then At The Times When We Had 6 Different Flavors Of Jam Out On Display Only 40% Of The People Actually Stopped, So More People Were Clearly Attracted To The Larger Varieties Of Options, But Then When It Came Down To Buying, So The Second Thing We Looked At Is In What Case Were People More Likely To Buy A Jar Of Jam. What We Found Was That Of The People Who Stopped When There Were 24 Different Flavors Of Jam Out On Display Only 3% Of Them Actually Bought A Jar Of Jam Whereas Of The People Who Stopped When There Were 6 Different Flavors Of Jam 30% Of Them Actually Bought A Jar Of Jam.

In Fact, Even In That Store Draeger's They Had 348 Different Kinds Of Jam Actually In The Jam Aisle. And What We Found Over About, Say, 10 Years Of Research Is That As The Number Of Choices Actually Increase People Are Less Likely To Make A Choice And Sometimes They Do This Even When It's Really Bad For Them.