Via het weblog van PPMC kwam ik bij een aardig artikel over het maken van keuzes bij een groot aanbod. De strekking van het verhaal is dat het hebben van keuzes goed is, maar dat er ook een negatieve kant heeft:

• Paralysis: so many options that you end up not making a choice. A grocery store alternated allowing customers to sample 24 different flavors of jam & 6 different flavors of jam. With 24, more people came to the table but 1/10th as many people bought jam.
• Decision Quality: when presented with too many options, we do not use difficult criteria to decide but choose on the basis of what is most simple.
• Decision Satisfaction: Even when people have chosen well, they are dissatisfied with their results. When you give people lots of options, they will get a better result. But they will feel worse due to regret and anticipated regret. If you did not examine ALL options, you assume one or more might have been better. This reflects opportunity costs: the reduction of value through comparison to other options.
• Escalation of expectations: the availability of many choices increases expectations. When things were worse (less choices): it was easier to exceed expectations (now as high as possible). There are no pleasant surprises left.
• Maximizer Impact: too many choices is an issue for people whose aim in life is to get the best (maximizers). How do you know if you got the best? You actually need to look at every possibility by making an exhaustive search. There is virtually no area where maximizing makes sense.
• Leakage: the conditions present when people are making a choice do not stop exerting influence after a choice has been made. People are less satisfied due to regret or missed opportunities and this dissatisfaction extends after the choice to the actual experience.

Zo herkenbaar dit. Mijn abonnement voor m'n telefoon is 2 maanden terug afgelopen en ik wil toch wel wat nieuws uitzoeken. Ik heb inmiddels de sites van alle providers bekeken en van diverse winkels zoals t for telecom en Belcompany en tig abonnementen en toestellen 'proberen' te vergelijken. Maar heb nog steeds geen keuze kunnen maken! En hetzelfde geldt overigens voor het overstappen van Chello naar ADSL. Je ziet door de bomen het bos niet meer.