CV
I’m pretty indecisive. I don’t even really know how to start this article. Well, I guess I’ll open it with a little anecdote.
My sister had been hyping up this boba place in San Jose for weeks. So naturally, I had pretty high expectations.
The second I walked in, there were a ton of flavors I wanted to try. I was wrestling between two options for a while, but then when I went up to the counter, I got flustered, overwhelmed by all the exciting options, and just ordered a random Taro Slush. I don’t even like Taro.
Afterward, I regretfully sulked around the boba place. As they called my name to get my drink, I ripped off the straw wrapper in spite. I took a sip and my face scrunched up at the taste. To top things off, I dropped the drink in my car and it exploded everywhere. To put it simply, I was pretty disappointed.
I’ve found that a lot of people have had a similar experience.
Psychologist Barry Schwartz has studied this “Paradox of Choice” extensively, presenting his work in books and TedTalks. What spurred him? His dissatisfaction finding a pair of jeans.
You, yes you dear reader, are a culmination of choices. Life is a matter of choice. They are everywhere we look: what we wear to prom, who we want to associated with, what we order at a trendy boba place. Because we have all these choices, we get to
constantly invent and shape our identities.
But all these choices aren’t really a good thing. There’s a “sweet spot,” as Schwartz refers to it, where choice is great, but where there are too many choices, people often find it hard to choose at all. We keep putting off the decision for a while because we’re hesitant to actually have to accept the choice we make. That’s why I stood there for five minutes looking like a fool telling people “Oh, I’m not in line, still deciding.”
One study conducted by psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper looked at this paradox of choice through jam. On one day, shoppers at an upscale food market were presented with a display table with 24 varieties of gourmet jam, who received a coupon for $1 off any jam. On a different day, shoppers were exposed to the same display except there were only six jams. The large variety attracted more interest than the small one. Yet, when it was time for purchase, people who saw the large display were one-tenth as likely to buy as people who saw the small display.
Then, what happens when do choose? We fret over anything that is disappointing about what we chose. We are less satisfied because with increasing choices we have increasing expectations. Because I had such high expectations for this boba place, I regretted that Taro Slush that much more.
While we’re at it, I’m going to touch upon a possibly more relatable experience, especially relevant in this lovely time of year: cuffing season. If you’re tired of swiping left and right looking for that special someone, look no further. I’m serious, look no further.
We’ve found this problem of the paradoxical effect of choices, but Kaylee, how do we find the solution? You might just have to lower your expectations a bit. This is one serious ingredient to the secret recipe of happiness and possibly, going back to relationships, love.
I’m not saying to settle, but if you’re always searching for something better, chances are you will probably always have a resonating feeling of dissatisfaction and possibly end up with nothing at all. On the same topic, a Business Insider article commented, “Otherwise you might be holding out for a fairytale that could never happen.” So if there’s any chance something might turn out good, just give it a chance. And this advice not just exclusive to relationships, it’s applicable to all sorts of facets of life.
In our current affluent Western society, we’ve seen a huge spike in the number of depression diagnoses and suicides. A lot of this is correlated with all this choice surrounding us — and consequently, all these decisions we must make. And please don’t think that I’m saying a lengthy boba drink menu is the reason why a lot of us are depressed. Rather, a lot of people are experiencing disappointment because they have such high expectations, and when they start to reflect upon those experiences, they fault themselves.
Because of this enormous choice, we have to find the “sweet spot.” Schwartz explains that this middle ground “enables people to benefit from variety and not be paralyzed by it.” I can’t tell you exactly what that sweet spot is; I can’t say limit yourself to five choices for guaranteed satisfaction. But what I can tell you is that we’re long past the point where the number of choices we are presented with actually benefits our wellbeing.
Schwartz connects this sweet spot to finding a fishbowl. Without a fishbowl, the fish would die. With too little of a fishbowl, the fish has no movement and might also die. In his TedTalk, Schwartz said, “If you shatter this fishbowl so that everything is possible, you decrease satisfaction. You increase paralysis, and you decrease satisfaction.”
Well, now I’m stuck deciding how I should end this piece, but I’ll leave it at this: lower your expectations, find that sweet spot, and stay in a medium-sized fishbowl.
My sister had been hyping up this boba place in San Jose for weeks. So naturally, I had pretty high expectations.
The second I walked in, there were a ton of flavors I wanted to try. I was wrestling between two options for a while, but then when I went up to the counter, I got flustered, overwhelmed by all the exciting options, and just ordered a random Taro Slush. I don’t even like Taro.
Afterward, I regretfully sulked around the boba place. As they called my name to get my drink, I ripped off the straw wrapper in spite. I took a sip and my face scrunched up at the taste. To top things off, I dropped the drink in my car and it exploded everywhere. To put it simply, I was pretty disappointed.
I’ve found that a lot of people have had a similar experience.
Psychologist Barry Schwartz has studied this “Paradox of Choice” extensively, presenting his work in books and TedTalks. What spurred him? His dissatisfaction finding a pair of jeans.
You, yes you dear reader, are a culmination of choices. Life is a matter of choice. They are everywhere we look: what we wear to prom, who we want to associated with, what we order at a trendy boba place. Because we have all these choices, we get to
constantly invent and shape our identities.
But all these choices aren’t really a good thing. There’s a “sweet spot,” as Schwartz refers to it, where choice is great, but where there are too many choices, people often find it hard to choose at all. We keep putting off the decision for a while because we’re hesitant to actually have to accept the choice we make. That’s why I stood there for five minutes looking like a fool telling people “Oh, I’m not in line, still deciding.”
One study conducted by psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper looked at this paradox of choice through jam. On one day, shoppers at an upscale food market were presented with a display table with 24 varieties of gourmet jam, who received a coupon for $1 off any jam. On a different day, shoppers were exposed to the same display except there were only six jams. The large variety attracted more interest than the small one. Yet, when it was time for purchase, people who saw the large display were one-tenth as likely to buy as people who saw the small display.
Then, what happens when do choose? We fret over anything that is disappointing about what we chose. We are less satisfied because with increasing choices we have increasing expectations. Because I had such high expectations for this boba place, I regretted that Taro Slush that much more.
While we’re at it, I’m going to touch upon a possibly more relatable experience, especially relevant in this lovely time of year: cuffing season. If you’re tired of swiping left and right looking for that special someone, look no further. I’m serious, look no further.
We’ve found this problem of the paradoxical effect of choices, but Kaylee, how do we find the solution? You might just have to lower your expectations a bit. This is one serious ingredient to the secret recipe of happiness and possibly, going back to relationships, love.
I’m not saying to settle, but if you’re always searching for something better, chances are you will probably always have a resonating feeling of dissatisfaction and possibly end up with nothing at all. On the same topic, a Business Insider article commented, “Otherwise you might be holding out for a fairytale that could never happen.” So if there’s any chance something might turn out good, just give it a chance. And this advice not just exclusive to relationships, it’s applicable to all sorts of facets of life.
In our current affluent Western society, we’ve seen a huge spike in the number of depression diagnoses and suicides. A lot of this is correlated with all this choice surrounding us — and consequently, all these decisions we must make. And please don’t think that I’m saying a lengthy boba drink menu is the reason why a lot of us are depressed. Rather, a lot of people are experiencing disappointment because they have such high expectations, and when they start to reflect upon those experiences, they fault themselves.
Because of this enormous choice, we have to find the “sweet spot.” Schwartz explains that this middle ground “enables people to benefit from variety and not be paralyzed by it.” I can’t tell you exactly what that sweet spot is; I can’t say limit yourself to five choices for guaranteed satisfaction. But what I can tell you is that we’re long past the point where the number of choices we are presented with actually benefits our wellbeing.
Schwartz connects this sweet spot to finding a fishbowl. Without a fishbowl, the fish would die. With too little of a fishbowl, the fish has no movement and might also die. In his TedTalk, Schwartz said, “If you shatter this fishbowl so that everything is possible, you decrease satisfaction. You increase paralysis, and you decrease satisfaction.”
Well, now I’m stuck deciding how I should end this piece, but I’ll leave it at this: lower your expectations, find that sweet spot, and stay in a medium-sized fishbowl.