Choice

Abstract

This chapter dives into why people sometime feel paralyzed by decisions. Challenging conventional wisdom that more choice is better, the chapter explains how choice can lead to cognitive overload, as demonstrated first by the story of a failed electronics retailer and then by a study involving a fruit jam display at a California farmers market. Yet choice is critical to a happy and prolonged life, as shown with some novel research involving houseplants in a nursing home setting. The chapter concludes on the compounding nature of decisions, where cause and effect is never as simple as it seems, as demonstrated by the Hindenburg disaster. Implications for the workplace include providing employee choice where it matters most, promoting worker autonomy, and recognizing human biases toward oversimplifying successes and failures.