Paradox Of Choice

Paradox Of Choice

Paradox Of Choice

People have for a long time gone by the logic that having multiple options could benefit them. The presence of many options has been seen as an avenue to explore a variety of choices and pick the best. Well, that theory has been countered with Barry Schwartz’s theory on “paradox of choice” This article will be explaining the meaning of this concept and how it affects consumers.

What Is Paradox of Choice?

Paradox of choice is a concept that stipulates that the presence of multiple choices can cause more harm than good to a consumer. This concept was brought into the limelight by American psychologist, Barry Schartz in 2004. He demonstrated in his book, The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, how the presence of many options could cause anxiety and pressure for shoppers. He also described the behavior of consumers and how it relates to methods they use to satisfy their needs and the impact of choice.

Schartz went ahead to explain the types of decision-makers; maximizers and satisfiers. A maximizer conducts adequate research and sees to it they are making the best possible choice. They weigh all options before concluding. But this does not necessarily mean they will make the best choice compared to someone who didn’t put in as much effort. A satisfier, on the other hand, takes a more realistic approach and picks an option that meets their requirements. They don’t hassle much for things they want to purchase neither do they go into an overthinking fit.

The Best Ways to Choose

As we are faced with limitless options, how then do we choose? The following are the best ways to choose provided by Schwartz:

Identify Your Goals

The first step to making a choice is knowing what exactly you want. In the quest of making a choice, other factors could come into play and tamper with your emotions. We need to understand that sentiment is a major drive to making decisions and it might not always be advisable to go by sentiment. Map out your needs and in that way, decision-making will be easier.

Access Every Goals Importance

Placing your goal on a hierarchy is very important in decision-making. One thing that could help is the use of a scale of preference. This is a concept in which the wants of a consumer are arranged in order of importance.

Discover the Likelihood of Each Option to Reach Your Target

Suppose you have a couple of items to choose from, check the likelihood of each item to meet your goal. Reach deep into your needs and see how well each item can satisfy them.

Choose the Best Option

Having followed the required steps, you would have arrived at the best option at this point. Of course, it could be a difficult process to choose with myriad options but it is important to employ suitable strategies that could help on the journey. You can use the elimination method where you let go of each option until you find the one that perfectly- or almost perfectly match your requirements.

Revise Your Goals

As you see the result of your choice, take note of it. Gaining knowledge of how a choice has affected a consumer can give them more insight into steps to take in the future. If the result is bad, a consumer learns and see how they can modify their goals and choices next time. If it is good, they keep an eye out for the mechanisms used previously and apply them to their future goals.

Making a choice is a lot more difficult than it seems. Barry Schwartz has well explained the impact of many available options on a consumer. The presence of choices is undoubtedly overwhelming, but we can deal with it with adequate strategy. If the proper steps are rightly followed, you could be on your way to make the best possible choice there is.

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Overview of Paradox Of Choice

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Shopify is listed as the best ecommerce software related to Ecommerce Platforms. Shopify was founded in 2006 in Ottawa, Canada and currently has over 6,124 employees registered on Linkedin.

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