Expectations and the paradox of choice
Posted on August 22nd, 2008 at 11:00
There is an interesting presentation by psychologist Barry Schwartz at TED called "The paradox of choice". He explains why people are not better off when there is too much choice.
He claims:
Some choice is better than none. But it doesn't follow from that, that more choice is better than some.
His explanation makes sense:
The more options there are, the easier it is to regret anything at all that is disappointing about the option that you chose.
I think he has a valid point. A point which is also true in software:
- How does a customer know which of the 6 (different?) versions of Windows Vista he should choose?
- I'm using Ubuntu but maybe another distribution would be better for me. There are so many distributions to choose from.
- There are a dozen WYSIWYG editor modules for Drupal. How do I pick the right one?
- After you install 6 Eclipse projects the update manager contains more than 40 update sites showing hundreds of available plug-ins. When I want to install something extra, how do I know which plug-in I should select?
- Which of the 417 Docbook elements do I really need to write my text?
I'm not saying that there should be no choice at all but very often there is simply too much choice and investigating all possible options takes too much time. Luckily Barry Schwartz reveals how to be happy with the choices you make:
The secret to happiness is "low expectations".
You can watch the presentation below or over at TED:
I have not seen the TED version, but Mr. Schwartz had a one hour long presentation about this subject as a Google TechTalk, available at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6127548813950043200
Not sure if you read the book, but I think his ideas are very inspiring and design can set low expectations (think wikipedia) however you should be very cautions in thinking about this. To quote someone who doesn't agree with Barry Schwartz :
"Dr. Edward Deci, professor of Psychology at the University of Rochester, and the author of several studies on choice, says, “The optimal number of options to choose from depends on the situation and the person. When you have more time, more information, and a more important decision, you typically would want to consider more options, and some people always want more than other people do. So, with an important decision about retirement, it is something most people would want to spend time on…I am very wary about anyone who wants to take away options from others or limit other people’s opportunities for choice. It amazes me that some psychologists are arguing that we should limit human freedom.”
After reading the book his ideas are inspiring but finding that "right" amount of choice is just really hard, especially when it comes down to technology.
Ohh, and if your really interested in this check some topics on user experience/usability blogs about this. These communities have been talking about this ever since Barry Schwartz his research came out.
very interesting presentation...
The choice - this is such a thing, which is difficult .
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