92. People Want More Choices and Information than they can Process
If you stand in any aisle in any retail store in the U.S., you’ll be inundated with choices. Whether you’re buying candy, cereal, TVs, or jeans, you’ll likely have a huge number of items to choose from. Whether it’s a retail store or a Web site, if you ask people if they’d prefer to choose from a few alternatives or have lots of choices, most people will say they want lots of choices.
Too Many Choices Paralyzes the Thought Process
Sheena Iyengar’s book The Art of Choosing (2010) details her research and others’ on choice. In graduate school Iyengar conducted what is now known as the “jam” study. Iyengar and Mark Lepper (2000) decided to test the theory that people who have too ...
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