Wednesday, September 07, 2011
the paradox of choice
as society progresses many things happen including economic development, improved mortality and luxury of choice. do these choices present more unhappiness? traditionally the paradox of choice has been illustrated with jams. I present two scenarios.
scenario 1: you get four choices of jams. you pick one and you're stuck with it. the one you pick will grow in your mind as the far superior jam. this is psychology for you. you can't help it. you've been programmed with the resiliency to adapt to what you have. now imagine you've grown attached to your jam, then all of a sudden they discontinue it. at some point you'll find a replacement jam. that resiliency reflex will kick in. but there may be a piece of you that thinks it'll never be the same.
scenario 2: you get a choice of forty jams. you pick one and you're stuck with it. once the jam is picked, you will forever wonder if one of the other 39 jams is the better jam.
which is the preferred scenario?
scenario 1: you get four choices of jams. you pick one and you're stuck with it. the one you pick will grow in your mind as the far superior jam. this is psychology for you. you can't help it. you've been programmed with the resiliency to adapt to what you have. now imagine you've grown attached to your jam, then all of a sudden they discontinue it. at some point you'll find a replacement jam. that resiliency reflex will kick in. but there may be a piece of you that thinks it'll never be the same.
scenario 2: you get a choice of forty jams. you pick one and you're stuck with it. once the jam is picked, you will forever wonder if one of the other 39 jams is the better jam.
which is the preferred scenario?
# posted by cc @ 6:47 PM 
