The Paradox of Choice: A Road Map

By Barry Schwartz
from The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less

'Bout six years ago, I went to the Gap to buy a pair of jeans.

I tend to wear my jeans until they're falling apart, so it had been quite a while since my last purchase. A nice young salesperson walked up to me and asked if she could help.

"I want a pair of jeans - 32-28," I said.

"Do you want them slim fit, easy fit, relaxed fit, baggy, or extra baggy?" she replied. "Do you want them stonewashed, acid-washed or distressed? Do you want them button-fly or zipper-fly? Do you want them faded or regular?"

I was stunned. A moment or two later I sputtered out something like, "I just want regular jeans. You know, the kind that used to be the only kind." It turned out she didn't know, but after consulting one of her older colleagues, she was able to figure out what "regular" jeans used to be, and she pointed me in the right direction.

The trouble was that with all these options available to me now, I was no longer sure that "regular" jeans were what I wanted. Perhaps the easy fit or the relax fit would be more comfortable. Having already demonstrated how out of touch I was with modern fashion, I persisted. I went back to her and asked what difference there was between regular jeans, relaxed fit, and easy fit. She referred me to as diagram that showed how the different cuts varied. It didn't help narrow the choice, so I decided to try them all. . .I was now convinced that one of these options had to be right for me, and I was determined to figure it out. But I couldn't. Finally, I chose the easy fit, because "relaxed fit" implied that I was getting soft in the middle and needed to cover it up.

The jeans I chose turned out just fine, but it occurred to me that. . .by creating all these options, the store undoubtedly had done a favor for customers with varied tastes and body types. However, by vastly expanding the range of choices, they had also created a new problem that needed to be solved. Before these options were available, a buyer like me had to settle for an imperfect fit, but at least purchasing jeans was a five-minute affair. Now it was a complex decision [involving. . .] no small amount of self-doubt, anxiety, and dread.

Reading of March 9, 2008