ESSAY

Experiences with Choice and the Human Condition

This essay is a response to an interview conducted by Mark Hurst of Good Experience.

PLEASE READ: |Interview | Blog for Readers' Comments on Interview |

My own experience reflects what Barry [Schwartz in his book "The Paradox of Choice] has written; I find shopping very uncomfortable.

Back when I lived with my parents, I had one of 3 or 4 cereals to choose from for breakfast (bran-filled "Choice A", oat-filled "Choice B", or tasteless "Choice C"; however, I longed to have the "sugared" kind.

Once in my own place and grocery shopping for survival vs. entertainment (per Karl's fine observation), I recall standing in the cereal aisle and occasionally pacing back and forth considering about 50 options of sugared cereal. My husband scratched his head asking, "How hard can this possibly be? Just pick one! -- Or pick two!" I was in the aisle for a half hour, paralyzed.

I have similar experiences in Shopping Malls (where I visit only once a year, as a result, to buy shoes); in chain restaurants, like Applebee's, Chili's, TGI Friday's, Perkins, etc., (with their long menus); and in chef-owned restaurants (where the menu items are exotic and I'm afraid I'll miss the opportunity to try all of the really great alternatives). My solution is to ask for recommendations or referrals. That narrows down the field quite a lot.

In order to make a decision about a new cell phone and possibly a new wireless plan, I created a spreadsheet of the major providers and options that met my criteria. There were over 25. Every choice had pros and cons that I felt needed consideration. After about 2 hours of this nonsense, I went with my gut.

Being an informed consumer these days is both a time consuming and frustrating process. I think encouraging a company to simply narrow their offerings won't solve the problem on account of the rest of the market -- competitors will continue to present their infinite spread of options. The proposition of guiding business to reduce the number of selections would have to be a cultural shift.

A more appropriate solution, I think, is to personalize the information about products. This works very well online because we're dealing with data about products (as on the Web) vs. the products themselves (as in a traditional brick & mortar.)

Suggestive selling allows user to find items that may also be of interest (and has been very useful in my own purchases at Amazon.com). e.g. "Customers who bought this book also bought 'X'." I'll be interested to learn the results of Barry's study.

Most importantly, customers need to be guided about offerings based on their values and whatever parameters they bring with them. While it certainly is easier to create standard packages as samples than to lay all the options out and overwhelming the client, I believe the most satisfied customer comes from the opportunity to interact with a human being who is knowledgeable, who presents a meaningful line of questioning regarding their needs and resources and who is genuinely interested in their satisfaction.

Human beings are social creatures. A synthetic system, no matter how "intelligent" or sophisticated it may be, cannot offer the prospective relationships that our species so longs for. This is why the consultative salesperson in the new ecomomy of choices has not become extinct as once was feared, but has instead become more pervasive and desired -- a navigator in this Brave New Economy.

I'm not certain that this is necessarily a "paradox" of choice; it could simply be our natural shift toward a sort of homeostasis -- a desire to regain balance in the face of overwhleming options.

At the same time, I like the idea of of choice itself being a paradox...any concept could be explored using this heuristic.

For example, the concept of "choice" could be replaced with "water." Too much water (drowning leads to death) is as "bad" as too little (dehydration leads to death). Just the right amount, whatever that happens to be, is perfect.

So what is perfect? Why is seeking perfection so important to human beings? And cannot perfection also be framed using the same paradox and balance heuristics?

Maybe everything -- the conflicts, discomforts and pains we have as consumers, as in life -- is already okay and just as it should be.