Choice… is it a good thing?

[rfc@i-change.biz]

I, and suspect many of you feel this too, tend to really value my ability to choose. Free will is deeply enshrined in our social systems and even though these days much of this freedom is illusory, we treasure it.

Yesterday I went to a talk on Behavioural Economics, which is the study of why we make our buying decisions. However, it touched on some deeper issues, like why do we choose to preserve freedoms even when they doesn’t make us happy. Just think of the happily married man, with a lovely wife and children who is serially unfaithful. He has no desire to wreck his happy home or harm the people he loves but keeps exercising that old right to choose…

He quoted from an experiment with MIT, where students (all very clever chaps), were asked to make a series of choices with aim of maximising their ‘profit’ from this exercise. Each choice cost them points, and won them variable amounts of money. The fascinating thing was that even when they were told that limiting their options would make them more money, they still couldn’t resist keeping them open.

I wonder how often in life we delay a choice, wondering if something better may come along, only to miss out in the end. Apparently, not only may ‘a bird in the hand be worth two in the bush’ but the bird we have may make us happier too!

This kind of behaviour goes very deep, but it is always a good idea to remind ourselves what we are trying to achieve before making, or delaying, a decision; and asking what the cost and potential benefit of doing so is…

Do you have any stories about preserving choices and getting bitten in the bum?

“There are always two choices. Two paths to take. One is easy. And its only reward is that it’s easy.”

“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” Joanne Kathleen Rowling

[fundingportal]

Interesting points on choice, and in various ways it manifests itself in the business environment.

In addition to your points, I believe that, whilst embracing choice, we also seek to be led. Thus whilst the vast majority of people will cliam that the can't be sold to, in fact most of us buy into a comfort zone. A classic example is washing powder; in the supermarket we have a vast array of choices but, will typically stick with one or two brands. Whether we acknowledge it or not, that choice of brand is almost certainly led by TV advertising.

When presenting our product portfolio, the message I always attempt to achieve is 'We can offer massive flexibility, but these are our basic services'. As a rule of thumb, the more quotes we give, the less likely we are to close a deal.

In better economic times I would always have considered myself to be an impulse buyer, and don't believe I have noticeably lost out to more considered purchasers.