Choice is not always our friend

Ever found yourself rooted to the spot? Overwhelmed by choice, unsure what to buy? 30 sorts of cooking oil, 23 brands of shampoo, 15 types of eggs. The issue is not what. It’s which.

Renata Saleci is a Professor of Psychology, Psychoanalysis and Law (an interesting combination). This is her talking about the paradox of choice. She is originally from Slovenia, the first former communist country to join the Eurozone in 2007. This is what Professor Saleci says about that time of flux: “At the end of Communism we had a feeling that rights and choices had been finally secured for us. And suddenly a possibility of social change might happen.” But it didn’t go that way because there was too much choice.

Saleci says that we are “frozen in some kind of state of indecisiveness when there are too many choices.” But our decision-making isn’t at fault. It’s because society creates choice at every level of our lives since “choice is a domineering idea on which capitalism is based.” We are racked with uncertainty, like deer in the headlights because:

1) “We choose what other people are choosing. We are obsessed with how others will regard us… It is a very social matter.”

2) We try to make ‘ideal’ choices. It’s “why people are constantly switching telephone providers, or going from one partner to another, and always feel…