Choice – it’s awesome right?

Ristretto? Espresso? Lactose-free? Soy? Almond? However, in a coffee lover’s paradise, being dissatisfied with your drink can only mean one thing: You made the wrong choice.⠀

In 2000, psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper from Columbia and Stanford University published a study about jams. On one normal day, people would find a display table with 24 different kinds of jams. Then on another day, at that same food market, people were given only 6 different types of jam choices.

Which table led to more sales? You guessed it.

When faced with 6 pots of jam, buyers bought 27% more jam. That’s right, sales increased by 27% just by giving buyers less choices. Although the 24 pots of jam encouraged more social interaction, only 3% of buyers actually bought jam!

We cannot deny choice is good for us, but its relationship to satisfaction appears to be more complicated than we had assumed. ⠀⠀

But the outcome of too much choice? More of it requires increased time and effort and can lead to anxiety, regret, excessively high expectations, and self-blame if the choices don’t work out. Eventually, each new option makes us feel worse off than we did before.

So our advice? Trust yourself. Only you know what you really need, and what is right for you. Be happy with your choice.