Mental Elevation
Paradox of Choice
More options, less happiness, zero decisions.
Grounded in the research on the paradox of choice
the gist
Past a point, more options don't free you — they paralyze you and leave you LESS happy with whatever you pick, because you can't stop imagining the ones you passed up. Abundance curdles into anxiety.
the science
From Barry Schwartz's 'The Paradox of Choice' (2004). The famous jam study (Iyengar and Lepper): a display of 24 jams pulled more browsers, but a display of 6 sold about ten times more. 'Maximizers' who hunt the single best option are reliably more anxious and regretful than 'satisficers' who take good-enough and move on.