Chapter 8: When Too Many Options Wear Us Out

Forty-Five Minutes of Scrolling

It is Friday evening. Elif is thirty and has had a long week at the hospital laboratory where she works. Her partner, Tom, has cooked dinner, and they have agreed to watch a film together. They sit down on the sofa with plates on their knees, switch on the television and open the list of films.

There are hundreds of them. Comedies, dramas, documentaries, old classics, new releases, films in other languages, films for families and films that nobody has heard of. Elif scrolls. Tom suggests a thriller. Elif says she is too tired for anything tense. She suggests a comedy. Tom says he saw the trailer and it looked silly. They read descriptions, watch a few trailers and look up reviews on their phones. Every film seems almost right, but not quite. Each time they come close to choosing one, another title appears that might be better.

After forty-five minutes, their dinner is cold and half eaten, and they still have not chosen. Elif sighs and says, "Let us just watch an episode of that old series we have seen five times." Tom agrees with relief. They both enjoy it, and they are both a little puzzled. They had hundreds of films to choose from, and in the end they chose none of them.

Elif and Tom's evening is an everyday example of a question that has been studied by psychologists and economists for many years. We usually assume that more choice is better. More options mean more chances to find the perfect one. Yet sometimes, having many options seems to make choosing harder, slower and less satisfying. This chapter is about when and why that happens, what the evidence really says and how to choose well in a world of endless options.

The Jam Table

One of the most famous studies on this question took place in an ordinary food shop. Researchers set up a tasting table where shoppers could try different kinds of jam. On some days, the table offered a large selection of flavours. On other days, it offered a small selection. Shoppers who tasted could then receive a small discount if they bought a jar.

The researchers found two interesting things. The large display attracted more people to stop and look. Many options seemed exciting and inviting. But among the people who stopped, those who saw the small display were more likely to actually buy a jar of jam than those who saw the large one. The large display drew attention but seemed to make the final choice harder.

Other studies at around the same time found similar patterns. In one, students who were given a short list of topics for an extra writing task were more likely to complete it than students given a long list. In another, people who chose a chocolate from a small selection reported being more satisfied with their choice than people who chose from a large selection. Together, these studies gave rise to the idea of choice overload: the idea that too many options can make people less likely to choose, and less happy with what they choose.

It is easy to see why these studies caught people's attention. They seemed to explain a feeling that many people already had: standing in front of a long shelf of shampoos, cereals or cleaning products and feeling oddly tired before even starting to choose. They also seemed to go against a common belief, that offering customers more options is always good for them. A surprising result that matches everyday experience is exactly the kind of result that spreads quickly, and that is also exactly the kind of result that deserves careful checking.

The idea spread quickly. It appeared in books, talks and business advice, often in a strong form: "More choice makes people unhappy" or "Always offer fewer options." But as we will see, the story turned out to be more complicated, and more interesting, than that.

What Later Research Found

As often happens in science, other researchers tried to repeat the early choice overload studies in different places, with different products and different people. The results were mixed. Some studies found clear signs of choice overload. Others found no effect at all. A few even found that people were more satisfied when they had more options.

When researchers gathered many of these studies together and looked at them as a whole, they found that the average effect of having more options was small, close to zero in some analyses. In other words, there is no simple rule that more options always make people worse off. Sometimes they do. Often they make little difference. Sometimes they help.

This might sound like the end of the story, but it is actually the beginning of a more useful one. Researchers then asked a better question: under what conditions does choice overload appear? Their answers have become clearer over time. Choice overload is more likely when the options are hard to compare, for example when each one has a different mix of features. It is more likely when people do not already know what they want. It is more likely when the decision is complex, when time is short and when people feel they will have to explain or justify their choice to others. And it is more likely when the options are presented in a confusing way, without any categories or order.

On the other hand, choice overload is less likely when people already have clear preferences, when the options are well organized, when there is a simple way to compare them or when someone trustworthy has made a recommendation. A person who knows exactly which jam flavour they love will not be troubled by a large table. They will simply find it.

So the honest summary is this. Having many options is not harmful in itself. What can wear us out is the combination of many options with unclear preferences, difficult comparisons and pressure. Elif and Tom had all of these on Friday evening: hundreds of films, no clear idea of what they wanted, two people to please and the tiredness of a long week. It is not surprising that they gave up.

Elif and Tom later found their own solution. They now keep a short list on the refrigerator door. Whenever either of them hears about a film that sounds good, they add it to the list. On Friday evenings, they choose only from that list, and whoever chose last week lets the other choose this week. The large world of films is still there, but on a tired evening, they face only a handful of options that they already know they like the sound of.

Why Many Options Can Be Tiring

Even when choice overload does not stop us from choosing, many options can still make choosing more effortful. There are several reasons.

The first is the work of comparison. Comparing two options is fairly easy. Comparing ten is much harder, because each option must be weighed against every other one, and each may be better in one way and worse in another. Slow thinking, as we saw in the second chapter, can handle only a little at a time. When the comparisons pile up, it gets tired and starts looking for a way out, such as postponing the choice or picking something familiar.

The second is the shadow of the options we did not choose. When there are only two options, choosing one means giving up only one other. When there are many, choosing one can feel like giving up all the others, and some of them may have been wonderful. Economists call the value of the best option we did not choose the opportunity cost. With many attractive options, the opportunity cost feels large, and it can cast a shadow over the option we picked. We wonder, "Was there a better one?"

The third is rising expectations. When there are only a few options, we expect to find something acceptable. When there are hundreds, we start to expect something perfect. After all, with so many options, surely one of them is exactly right. When the chosen option turns out to be merely good, we may feel disappointed, not because it is bad, but because our expectations were so high.

The fourth is a feeling of responsibility. If you have only one or two options and the result is disappointing, you can blame the situation. If you had a huge range and chose poorly, it seems to be your own fault. This possibility of self-blame can make people hesitate and can make them feel worse about choices that turn out less than perfect.

Maximizers and Satisficers

In the first chapter, we met Herbert Simon's idea of satisficing: choosing the first option that is good enough. Later researchers used this idea to describe two broad styles of choosing that people seem to have.

Some people tend to be maximizers. When they choose, they want the best possible option, and they feel they must look at as many options as they can to find it. Other people tend to be satisficers. They have a sense of what would be good enough, and when they find an option that meets their standards, they stop looking and feel content. Most of us are somewhere in between, and we may be maximizers about some things, such as a home, and satisficers about others, such as socks.

Some studies suggest an interesting difference between these styles. Maximizers sometimes achieve slightly better results by objective measures, because they search more widely. But they often feel less satisfied with their choices and more troubled by regret, because they keep thinking about the options they did not choose. Satisficers may end up with results that are a little less impressive on paper, but they tend to feel happier with them. These findings come from questionnaires and specific groups of people, so they should be treated as a general tendency rather than a fixed rule.

The lesson is not that searching is bad. For important decisions with real differences between options, careful searching makes sense. The lesson is that the hope of finding the perfect option can come at a cost to our time and our contentment. In many areas of life, "good enough" is not settling for less. It is a sensible way to protect our attention for what matters most.

It also helps to notice that standards can be high for a satisficer. Satisficing does not mean accepting anything. It means deciding in advance what is good enough, and then stopping when you find it. A satisficer looking for a new flat might insist on good light, a short trip to work, a quiet street and a fair rent. Those are high standards. What makes the person a satisficer is that, once they find a flat that meets all four, they sign the lease instead of spending another month looking for a fifth quality they did not need.

Three Lives Among Many Options

Baptiste is sixty-six and has just retired after many years as a postal worker. He wants to learn something new, and the community centre near his home offers a long list of evening classes: painting, pottery, languages, history, cooking, dancing, computer skills, music and more. Baptiste reads the list again and again. Every class sounds interesting, and choosing one means not choosing the others. After three weeks, he has not signed up for anything. His daughter suggests that he stop trying to pick the perfect class and instead choose one for just one term, knowing that he can choose another next term. Baptiste chooses pottery because the classroom is on the ground floor and the teacher seemed friendly. He enjoys it very much. The next term, he adds a history class.

Nkechi is eighteen and choosing where to study after school. She has information about dozens of courses at many institutions, each with different subjects, costs, locations and reputations. She makes enormous comparison tables, and the tables only make her more anxious. A teacher helps her change her approach. First, Nkechi writes down the four things that matter most to her: the subject, the cost, being able to visit home often and a supportive learning environment. Then she removes every option that does not meet all four. Only five courses remain. She visits three of them and chooses the one where the students she met seemed happiest. The decision is still important, but it no longer feels impossible.

Lars and Mina are new parents. Before their baby is born, they spend many evenings comparing pushchairs. There are dozens of models, each with different wheels, seats, folding systems and colours. They read every review and feel more confused each night. Finally, a friend who has two children says, "Tell me how you will use it. Mostly on pavements or rough paths? Will you carry it on buses?" Their answers narrow the field to three models. The friend lends them her own pushchair for a weekend, and they discover that what they care about most is how easily it folds. They choose the simplest model that folds well. They never think about the other options again.

In each of these lives, the solution was not to have fewer options in the world. It was to have fewer options at the moment of choosing. Baptiste reduced the weight of the decision by making it temporary. Nkechi reduced the list by setting clear criteria first. Lars and Mina reduced the confusion by asking how they would actually use the thing they were buying. Each of them turned an overwhelming field into a small, clear choice.

More Choice Can Be Good

It is important not to swing too far in the other direction. Having choices is valuable. People differ in their needs, tastes and situations, and a wider range of options means that more people can find something that truly fits them. A person with a particular diet, a person with a disability, a person with unusual interests or a person on a tight budget may depend on having many options to find the one that works. For them, a small selection may contain nothing suitable at all.

Choice also matters for reasons beyond the result. Being able to choose gives people a sense of control over their lives and a sense of being respected as adults. Many people would rather choose from many options, even at some cost in effort, than be told what to have.

There is also the simple pleasure of exploring. Browsing a market, a bookshop or a menu full of unfamiliar dishes can be enjoyable in itself, quite apart from the final choice. Problems tend to arise not when we explore for pleasure, but when we feel we must choose correctly and quickly from a field that is too large to understand. Knowing which situation you are in helps. If you are exploring, take your time and enjoy it. If you need to decide, switch to a method that narrows the field.

So the real question is not "How many options should there be?" but "How can options be arranged so that people can choose well?" Good arrangements include clear categories, simple ways to compare, sensible starting suggestions and the freedom to look further for those who want to. A library does not have fewer books than a pile of books on the floor. It simply arranges them so that readers can find what they need. In the same way, we can arrange our own choices so that a large world becomes manageable.

Practical Steps

First, decide what matters before you look. Before you open a list of options, write down the three or four qualities that matter most to you in this choice. Then use them as a filter. Remove every option that fails any of them. This turns a large field into a small one, and it keeps your attention on what you really care about.

Second, make a shortlist of three. Once you have filtered the options, choose no more than three to compare carefully. Comparing three is manageable for slow thinking. Comparing twenty is not. If there are more than three good candidates, pick three at random, or choose the three that a trusted source recommends.

Third, set a time limit. For small and medium choices, decide in advance how long you will spend. Ten minutes for a film, an hour for a new kettle, a week for a holiday plan. When the time is up, choose the best option you have found so far. You will rarely regret the time you saved.

Fourth, use trusted recommendations. A recommendation from a knowledgeable friend, a reliable public source or a person who has faced the same choice can cut through a large field quickly. It does not replace your own judgment, but it gives you a sensible starting point.

Fifth, make choices reversible where you can. If you can return a purchase, try a class for one term or rent before buying, the decision becomes lighter. Knowing that you can change your mind later reduces the fear of choosing wrongly, which is often what keeps us scrolling.

Sixth, close the search once you have chosen. After you decide, stop looking at the other options. Many people keep checking prices or reviews after they have bought something, and this only stirs up regret. Give your choice a fair chance to show what it can do.

A Short Exercise: The Good Enough List

This exercise helps you practise satisficing in a decision that you face often. It takes about fifteen minutes the first time and saves time every time afterwards.

Choose one kind of decision that you make regularly and that tends to take more time than it deserves. It might be choosing what to cook for dinner, buying a gift, picking a film, choosing clothes in a shop or replacing a household item. Write the kind of decision at the top of a card.

Underneath, write your "good enough list": three to five simple conditions that an option must meet. For a weeknight dinner, the list might be: uses what is already in the cupboard, takes less than forty minutes, includes a vegetable and is something at least two people in the family like. For a gift, the list might be: within the amount I decided to spend, connected to something the person enjoys and possible to buy this week.

The next time you face this kind of decision, take out the card. Look at options until you find the first one that meets every condition on the list. Then choose it and stop. Notice how long the decision took, and how you felt about it afterwards. Write a short note on the back of the card.

After you have used the card three or four times, look at your notes. Did the choices made with the list turn out worse than your usual choices? Most people find that they did not, and that they felt calmer and had more time for other things. If some choice disappointed you, adjust the list by adding or changing one condition. Over time, you will have a small set of cards that make your most common decisions easy, leaving your energy for the decisions that really deserve it.

You can also use the exercise with others. A family deciding on a weekend outing, a group of friends choosing a restaurant or a team at work picking a date for a meeting can agree on a short good enough list first. It often prevents the long, tiring discussions that happen when everyone is searching for the perfect option at once.

Questions People Often Ask

"Am I a maximizer, and is that bad?" Many people recognize themselves as maximizers in some areas of life. That is not a flaw. A careful search makes sense for decisions where options truly differ and where the result matters a great deal. The difficulty comes when the habit of searching for the best spreads to decisions where the differences are small. A good approach is to keep your maximizing for a few important choices each year and to practise satisficing for the rest. You may find that you are happier with both.

"Why do I keep checking other options after I have already decided?" This is a very common habit, especially for people who tend to maximize. Part of the reason is the fear that a better option was missed. Another part is that our minds keep comparing as long as the other options are in front of us. One helpful step is to make the decision feel complete: write it down, tell someone, and then remove the other options from view, for example by closing pages or putting leaflets away. Once the decision feels finished, the urge to keep checking usually fades.

"Is it better to let someone else choose for me?" Sometimes it is, as long as the person understands what you need and you can still say no. Asking a trusted friend to pick a restaurant, letting a skilled person recommend a repair or following a sensible suggestion can save effort and often lead to good results. But for decisions that shape your life in important ways, such as your work, your home or your relationships, it is worth staying involved, even if others help you narrow the field. Their help can make the choice smaller without making it any less yours.

Chapter Summary

We often assume that more choice is always better, and having options is truly valuable. But early studies, such as one with a large and small display of jams, suggested that many options can sometimes make people less likely to choose or less satisfied with their choice. Later research found that this effect is mixed and, on average, small; it appears mainly when options are hard to compare, preferences are unclear, decisions are complex and time is short.

Many options can be tiring because of the work of comparison, the shadow of options not chosen, rising expectations and the fear of self-blame. Maximizers search for the best and sometimes feel less satisfied; satisficers stop at good enough and often feel more content.

Deciding what matters first, making a shortlist of three, setting a time limit, using trusted recommendations, making choices reversible and closing the search once you have chosen all help. In the next chapter, we look at what happens when we do not choose at all, and at the quiet power of the option that is already chosen for us.