Another View of the Long Tail
Barry Schwartz is a psychologist who studies the relationship between economics and human behavior. While Long Tail economics gives consumers more choices, Schwartz believes that too many choices can lead to analysis paralysis. Is there an ideal number of choices?
Affluence Leads to More Choices
In a world where we have more choices than ever before, Schwartz makes these points:
- When everything was worse, it was possible for people to be pleasantly surprised.
- People have experiences that are disappointing because their expectations are too high. When expectations are not met, they blame themselves.
- Some choice is better than no choice. However, there comes a point where too many choices can lead to indecisiveness.
Business Applications
When presenting your offerings to your customers, how many choices do you offer them? What is the ideal number of choices for your industry?