Are you an “optimized” decision maker or a “satisfied” decision maker?
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Kizhi School” (ID: openmindclub), author society Dr. Wang Fei, Ph.D., authorized to reprint.
The choice is not tangled, the key is not the amount of options, but how much information needs to be processed in the entire selection scenario.
Does the choice of difficulty really exist?
In life, we face big and small choices every day: getting up in the morning, is the shirt blue or white? Eat at noon, is it a hamburger or a stew? Want to buy a mobile phone, is it a slap card or a coarse grain?
One of the benefits of modern society is that it is as big as weddings and funerals, life paths, small to eat, drink, play, food, shelter, and travel. Almost every choice can find an unlimited number of alternatives. But this also brought a by-product – the choice of difficult.
Do you choose to have difficulty?
Psychologist Sheena Iyengar has done a classic experiment:
Put a table at the food store with 6 or 24 flavors of jam on it. Those who come to shop can try it for free, count the number of types they try, and whether they will really save after the test. buy.
The results show that no matter whether the number of options is 6 or 24, people will only taste one or two of them.
In addition, the number of choices affects people’s willingness to buy: in the face of six choices, 30% of people actually bought one of them; and in the face of 24 choices, almost no one is willing to marry. Money to buy.
This story tells us that when there are too many options, we can’t seriously consider all the options, or even give up making choices.
Other studies have also found that too many choices, even if one of them is chosen, we will be more dissatisfied with our choices and more likely to regret it.
Image source Pixabay
Two types of influencing factors
However, there is not a simple linear relationship between the number of options and the difficulty of selection. Researchers have found manyPossible influencing factors can be divided into two categories:
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One is the characteristic of choosing a situation;
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One type is the characteristic of the selector.
In terms of choosing a situation, if the option has too many attributes to consider, or if there is a high degree of homogeneity between the options, no one has an absolute advantage, and such a choice can be very tangled.
Conversely, if each option has only a few limited attributes to consider, or if the options are well-defined, one of them is far superior to the remaining options, then even if the number of options is large, it will not Too much trouble.
At the end of the day, the choice will not be tangled. The key is not the amount of options, but how much information needs to be processed in the entire selection scenario. When the situation is too complicated and the amount of information exceeds the processing power of our brain, it will lead to decision-making difficulties and a decline in satisfaction.
In addition to this, the characteristics of the selector himself will also affect the selection experience.
In this regard, the first is the familiarity with the relevant fields.
In the case of buying a mobile phone, there are at least dozens of common parameters, and each parameter has many changes. As a small white user, it is easy to get lost in the ocean of technical indicators. But if you are an electronic enthusiast, it will be a lot easier to be familiar with the various parameters.
Second is whether the selector has a clear preference.
The most difficult thing to wait for when ordering is the person who says “just”. The most difficult thing to find is the “no standard” person. The reason why the choice is tangled is often because we don’t have a clear preference.
It is still a case of buying a mobile phone. If you have a clear weight assignment for various parameters, such as focusing on the camera function and not paying attention to the sound quality, then the selection situation will be much simplified.
Image source Pixabay
Two decision styles
In addition, psychologists distinguish between two typical decision styles:
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One is the “optimal” decision maker who is obsessed with and will try to find out the optimal solution in any decision-making situation;
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The other is a “satisfied” decision maker. This kind of person has to go through and not pursue the optimal solution. Just point it up, as long as you are happy and satisfied.
The two people’s performance is very different in the face of choice:
Optimized decision makers are willing to invest more time, money and effort to gather information and find more options than satisfied decision makers. For example, some studies have found that when looking for objects on the Internet, they will browse more files of potential objects.
In addition, the “optimal” in their eyes often has a strong social nature – not only the best in their own eyes, but also the best in others’ eyes, so they will pay more attention to other people’s views.
So, are these two decision-making styles better or worse?
Research shows that the best decision makers’ attachment to the optimal solution does bring some benefits to them. For example, a survey found that the optimal starting decision makers have an average starting salary that is 20% higher than that of satisfied decision makers.
However, on the other hand, the best decision makers are more dissatisfied with their choices, more likely to regret after the decision, even lower overall happiness, and a stronger tendency to depression.
This result is easy to understand:
In real life, the possible options and factors to be considered are infinite. Any individual’s information processing ability is not enough to exhaust it, so the “optimal solution” is an elusive. Ideal state.
In addition, what is meant by “optimal solutions” is itself a matter of opinion, and the best decision-makers’ efforts to cater to others tend to make them very hard.
However, the best decision-makers can enjoy the benefits of thoughtful thinking, and satisfied decision-makers, while contentment, are inevitably left with regrets that fail to achieve full potential.
After being a painful and efficient person, or being a satisfied person who is not so efficient, it is a tangled choice. ■