A choice is the range of different things from which a being can choose. The arrival at a choice may incorporate motivators and models.
Freedom of choice is generally cherished, whereas a severely limited or artificially restricted choice can lead to discomfort with choosing, and possibly an unsatisfactory outcome. In contrast, a choice with excessively numerous options may lead to confusion, reduced satisfaction, regret of the alternatives not taken, and indifference in an unstructured existence;Barry Schwartz: The Paradox of Choice (2004) and the illusion that choosing an object or a course, necessarily leads to the control of that object or course, can cause psychological problems.
Types One can distinguish four or five main types of decisions, although they can be expressed in different ways. Brian Tracy breaks them down into:Time Power, Brian Tracy, 2007, pg. 153 command decisions, which can only be made by you, as the "Commander in Chief", or owner of a company delegated decisions, which may be made by anyone. Decisions for example can be: The color of the bike shed can be delegated, as the decision must be made but the choice is inconsequential. avoided decisions, where the outcome could be so severe that the choice should not be made, as the consequences can not be recovered if the wrong choice is made. This will most likely result in negative actions, such as death. "No-brainer" decisions, where the choice is so obvious that only one choice can reasonably be made. A fifth type, however, (or fourth if "avoided" and "no-brainer" decisions are combined as one type), is the collaborative decision, made in consultation with, and by agreement of others. Collaborative Decision Making revolutionized air-traffic safety by not deferring to the captain when a lesser crew-member becomes aware of a problem.
Another way of looking at decisions focuses on the thought mechanism used - whether the decision is: Rational Intuitive Recognition-based Combination
Recognizing that "type" is an imprecise term, an alternate way to classify types of choices is to look at outcomes and the impacted entity. For example, using this approach three types of choices might be: business personal consumer Or politicians may choose to support or oppose options based on local, national, or international effects.
As a moral principle, decisions should be made by those most affected by the decision, but this is not normally applied to persons in jail, who might likely make a decision other than to remain in jail.Ethical leadership in schools, Kenneth A. Strike, 2006, pg. 5 Robert Gates cited this principle in allowing photographs of returning war-dead.
One can distinguish between conscious and unconscious choice. Processes such as brainwashing or other influencing strategies may have the effect of having unconscious choice masquerade as (praiseworthy) conscious choice.
Choices may lead to irreversible or to reversible outcomes; making irreversible choices (existential choices) may reduce choice overload.
Evaluability in economics When choosing between options one must make judgments about the quality of each option's attributes. For example, if one is choosing between candidates for a job, the quality of relevant attributes such as previous work experience, college or high school GPA, and letters of recommendation will be judged for each option and the decision will likely be based on these attribute judgments. However, each attribute has a different level of evaluability, that is, the extent to which one can use information from that attribute to make a judgment.
An example of a highly evaluable attribute is the SAT score. It is widely known in the United States that an SAT score below 800 is very bad while an SAT score above 1500 is exceptionally good. Because the distribution of scores on this attribute is relatively well known it is a highly evaluable attribute. Compare the SAT score to a poorly evaluable attribute, such as the number of hours spent doing homework. Most employers would not know what 10,000 hours spent doing homework means because they have no idea of the distribution of scores of potential workers in the population on this attribute.
As a result, evaluability can cause preference reversals between joint and separate evaluations. For example, a 1999 review and theoretical analysisHsee, C.K., Loewenstein, G.F., Blount, S., Bazerman, M.H. (1999). Preference reversals between joint and separate evaluations of option: A review and theoretical analysis. Psychological Bulletin 125(5), 576–590. looked at how people choose between options when they are directly compared because they are presented at the same time or when they cannot be compared because one is only given a single option. The canonical example is a hiring decision made about two candidates being hired for a programming job. Subjects in an experiment were asked to give a starting salary to two candidates, Candidate J and Candidate S. However, some viewed both candidates at the same time (joint evaluation), whereas others only viewed one candidate (separate evaluation). Candidate J had experience of 70 KY programs, and a GPA of 2.5, whereas Candidate S had experience of 10 KY programs and a GPA of 3.9. The results showed that in joint evaluation both candidates received roughly the same starting salary from subjects, who apparently thought a low GPA but high experience was approximately equal to a high GPA but low experience. However, in the separate evaluation, subjects paid Candidate S, the one with the high GPA, substantially more money. The explanation for this is that KY programs is an attribute that is difficult to evaluate and thus people cannot base their judgment on this attribute in separate evaluation.
Number of options and paradox Several research studies in economic psychology have concentrated on examining the variations in individual behavior when confronted with a low versus high choice set size, which refers to the number of available options. A particular area of interest lies in determining whether individuals demonstrate a higher propensity to purchase a product from a larger choice set compared to a smaller one. Currently, the effect of choice set size on the probability of a purchase is unclear. In some cases, large choice set sizes discourage individuals from making a choiceIyengar and Lepper. and in other cases it either encourages them or has no effect.Norwood, Lusk, Arunachalam, and Henneberry. One study compared the allure of more choice to the tyranny of too much choice. Individuals went virtual shopping in different stores that had a randomly determined set of choices ranging from 4 to 16, with some being good choices and some being bad. Researchers found a stronger effect for the allure of more choice. However, they speculate that due to random assignment of number of choices and goodness of those choices, many of the shops with fewer choices included zero or only one option that was reasonably good, which may have made it easier to make an acceptable choice when more options were available.White, C. M., & Hoffrage, U. (2009). Testing the tyranny of too much choice against the allure of more choice. Psychology & Marketing, 26(3), 280-98.
There is some evidence that while greater choice has the potential to improve a person's welfare, sometimes there is such a thing as too much choice. For example, in one experiment involving a choice of free soda, individuals explicitly requested to choose from six as opposed to 24 sodas, where the only benefit from the smaller choice set would be to reduce the cognitive burden of the choice. A recent study supports this research, finding that human services workers indicated preferences for scenarios with limited options over extensive-options scenarios. As the number of choices within the extensive-options scenarios increased, the preference for limited options increased as well.Reed, D. D., DiGennaro Reed, F. D., Chok, J., & Brozyna, G. A. (2011). The 'tyranny of choice': Choice overload as a possible instance of effort discounting. The Psychological Record, 61(4), 547-60. Attempts to explain why choice can demotivate someone from a purchase have focuses on two factors. One assumes that perusing a larger number of choices imposes a cognitive burden on the individual.Norwood The other assumes that individuals can experience regret if they make a suboptimal choice, and sometimes avoid making a choice to avoid experiencing regret.Irons and Hepburn.
Further research has expanded on choice overload, suggesting that there is a paradox of choice. As increasing options are available, three problems emerge. First, there is the issue of gaining adequate information about the choices in order to make a decision. Second, having more choices leads to an escalation of expectation. When there are increased options, people's standards for what is an acceptable outcome rise; in other words, choice "spoils you." Third, with many options available, people may come to believe they are to blame for an unacceptable result because with so many choices, they should have been able to pick the best one. If there is one choice available, and it ends up being disappointing, the world can be held accountable. When there are many options and the choice that one makes is disappointing, the individual is responsible.Schwartz, B. (2000). Self-determination: The tyranny of freedom. American Psychologist, 55(1), 79-88.
However, a recent meta-analysis of the literature on choice overload calls such studies into question. In many cases, researchers have found no effect of choice set size on people's beliefs, feelings, and behavior. Indeed, overall, the effect of "too many options" is minimal at best.
While it might be expected that it is preferable to keep one's options open, research has shown that having the opportunity to revise one's decisions leaves people less satisfied with the decision outcome.Gilbert, Daniel T., Ebert, Jane E. J. (2002). Decisions and revisions: The affective forecasting of changeable outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 82(4). 503-14. A recent study found that participants experienced higher regret after having made a reversible decision. The results suggest that reversible decisions cause people to continue to think about the still relevant choice options, which might increase dissatisfaction with the decision and regret.Bullens, L., van Harreveld, F., & Förster, J. (2011). Keeping one's options open: The detrimental consequences of decision reversibility. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(4), 800-05.