TOW#589 — CHOICE!
“CHOICE IS A WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION!”
As far back as when I was at university, I used to make my own T-shirts with a print or a message that I liked. One message I came up with and put on my T-shirt is the quotation above. When a friend saw me, he reacted immediately and said something negative about the slogan, arguing that choice is our human right, that it’s good to have options and that it’s good that we have ‘freedom of choice’.
But do we really have freedom of choice!? Have we ever had it or do we just think we have it!?! I’m not at all writing this from a ‘conspiracy theory’ point of view, but more from a psychological, consumerist perspective.
Have you ever been in an empty car park and found it very difficult to decide where to park!? If you’ve been in such a situation, don’t worry, it’s ‘normal’ to feel indecisive. I say normal in apostrophes, because that psychological effect is more common today, in the age of consumerism, than ever before. In psychology, being presented with a huge number of options is known as the ‘choice paradox’ — the more choices we have, the less satisfied we are with our decision (B. Schwartz).
In his book The Paradox of Choice — Why More Means Less, Schwartz, an American psychologist, argues that if customer choice were eliminated it would significantly reduce their / our anxiety.
Those of us from the ex-YU generation sometimes have a bit of a laugh on this topic, especially when we see something half empty (shelf, cupboard, dinner table…), and say something like “this is like the shops back in the day”. There were times in those days when there’d be only two chocolates, two toothpastes, one or two milks, etc. on the shelves. We only had two-three TV channels, two radio stations, three types of trainers. It was very easy for us to choose what to eat, drink, watch or listen to.
Nowadays, we have too many varieties of water, too much chocolate, too many cars, too many chairs, too many clothes, hats, T-shirts, too many boys, girls, jewelry, watches, bicycles… there’s too much of everything. How are we to know which is the best choice or how to be satisfied after choosing only one thing!?
In his book, Schwartz points out that ‘freedom of choice’ leaves people powerless and frustrated, because choosing ‘one’ option out of many means giving up on all the other possibilities. At the same time, because people can easily change or replace a choice, the absolute value of making a decision no longer exists.
Here are some things to keep in mind in order to make your decisions easier or less frustrating when you’re choosing something:
• Defining a goal — What do I want!? Think about what you expect from that choice, what you want to get and why you’re doing it!
• Prioritise goals — Since it may happen that you want more than one thing at the same time, decide what’s most important for you at that moment.
• Choosing an option — consider what each of the options will bring you. Firstly, is it related to your overall goal, and then what investment (money, time, energy, nerves, etc.) will be required if you decide on one of the options.
• Functionality / need — before making a choice, ask yourself “how much do I need this!?”. If you already have 10 pairs of similar shoes, how much do you need an 11th pair, or are you just satisfying some frustration, complex, pain, emptiness, ego, etc.?
• Reduce the places for comparison — when buying something, we often like to go to different places so that we can compare. Instead of going to 10 shops or visiting 10 Internet sites, reduce the number to two or three places.
• Budget — is it worth it to drive for two hours from one shop to another just to save 10 cents?
• Making a decision — when you finally make your choice, stop comparing, looking around and asking if you made the right one. When I buy a shirt, I don’t then go to other shops to see if there might be something better or cheaper.
• Are you happy with what you have — at the end of the day, the most important thing is whether you feel good about what you have or what you chose. If the answer is yes, then you really shouldn’t care about everyone and everything else.
In any case, don’t forget: “CHOICE IS A WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION!”
Wishing you success with the changes to come,
Petar Lazarov
Member of the Team
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