When Choices Aren't a Good Thing . . .

Who doesn't like to have choices?  

 Who hates to have choices?

 It's a crazy thing but when people are faced with more options than they can effectively consider  to make a good decision, a lot of the time they’re unable to do so, according to the results of a novel study from the University at Buffalo that used cardiovascular measures and fictional dating profiles to reach its conclusions, newswise.com states.
Despite the apparent opportunities presented by a lot of options, the need to choose creates a “paralyzing paradox,” according to Thomas Saltsman, a graduate student in the UB Department of Psychology and co-author of the study with Mark Seery, an associate professor of psychology at UB, the web site reports.
“You want to make a good choice, but feel like you can’t,” says Saltsman. “This combination of perceiving high stakes and low ability may contribute to a deep-seated fear that one will inevitably make the wrong choice, which could stifle the decision-making process.”
To manage the seemingly unmanageable, Saltsman says to consider the relative importance of the choice at hand, newswise advises.
I'm a quick decision-maker.  I don't like to think too much about my choices, I go with my gut, which I always respected until I learned that someone I don't much respect does, too.  But my gut has been pretty right on most of the time.
I knew the night I met my husband he was the one, and even though I can't say I had dozens of choices when it came to men, I'd seen enough to know that he was definitely my first choice.
“Choosing the wrong menu item for dinner or what to binge-watch is not going to define you as a person,” he says at newswise. “It may also be helpful to enter high-choice situations with a few clear guidelines of what you want from your desired option. Doing so may not only help scale down the number of possible choices, by eliminating options that do not meet your guidelines, but may also bolster confidence and trust in your ability to find a choice that meets your needs.”
Previous research clearly establishes how choice overload is associated with negative outcomes, but this research looks specifically at two understudied motivational factors of decision-making: how valuable is the decision to someone and to what extent do people view themselves as capable of making a good choice, according to newswise.com.
Having choices seems like an appealing situation that speaks to freedom and autonomy. But the emerging digital realities manifest in forums like online shopping and entertainment can be overwhelming.
Searching online for a spring jacket can return thousands of hits. One streaming service claims to offer more than 7,000 titles, while online dating services can enroll millions of subscribers.
All of those choices seems like a great idea, according to Seery.  Until you’re actually the one having to choose.
I was lucky.  In my day we went to singles' weekends and bars where the choices were very limited!
“We love having these choices, but when we’re actually faced with having to choose from among those countless options, the whole process goes south,” says Seery. “Research shows that, after the fact, people often regret their decision in these cases, but what our research suggests is that this kind of turn – the inherent paradox of liking choices and then being troubled by choices – happens almost immediately."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Don't Practice Before You Speak: Your Memory Deficit May Make You Miss Your Boss' Signal to Stop

How many times have you rehearsed telling your partner bad news?  Honey, I rammed the car through the beauty shop window.  But no one was hurt! Now a new study says that anticipating  performance before a school or work presentation can cause you not to remember what happened before the event. So who cares?  According to newswise.com,  "Performance anticipation could weaken memory because people tend to focus on the details of their upcoming presentation instead of paying attention to information that occurs before their performance," says lead author Noah Forrin, a postdoctoral fellow in Psychology at Waterloo.   "People who experience performance anxiety may be particularly likely to experience this phenomenon." Building on what previous research called the next-in-line effect , Forrin and his co-authors explored how different ways of preparing for a presentation can have an impact on the " pre-performance memory deficit, " the web site reports.
Read more

Grieving? Go Shopping, But Not for the Products, for the Actual, Physical Store

I've known it about myself for some time.  When in crisis reach for food or go shopping.  Now a new study says that people turn to consuming to combat problems, feelings and grief. But did you know that it's the commercial settings themselves that people are turning to? Whi le this may not be a surprise to you (maybe you do it, too), but p eople are increasingly turning to commercial settings as outlets for their emotions, confronting problems, grief and feelings , says newswise.com. It is well understood that consumers seek out leisure activities and vacations in order to escape from daily life and real-world problems, the web site reports. "But a new study by Dr Leighanne Higgins, from Lancaster University Management School, and Dr Kathy Hamilton, from the University of Strathclyde, reveals a new consumption trend - the important role of marketplaces in enabling consumers to confront their problems," according to newswise.com. "Whereas previous stu
Read more

Does Your Company's Bottom Line Strategy Hurt Your Performance?

Now this presumably will come as no surprise to anyone, but a new study says that supervisors are driven by the bottom line . Duh. But this may surprise you.  Those who do this do not get their employees' top performance, according to newswsie.com. That's probably not a surprise to anyone, either. Who wants to turn in stellar work when his boss makes him work past a guaranteed end time  (forget your son's soccer game) or criticizes, as I've experienced, everything you do, because your department is not meeting the bottom line? I won't mention the Fortune 500 company. " Supervisors driven by profits could actually be hurting their coveted bottom lines by losing the respect of their employees, who counter by withholding performance, says a new study led by Baylor University," as reported by newswise.com. “Supervisors who focus only on profits to the exclusion of caring about other important outcomes, such as employee well-being or environment
Read more