Paradox of choice

This article summarizes the main concepts in Barry Schwartz's book "The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less" in the context of the latest insights in happiness economics, the discussion of social status and the cultural dimension of individualism-collectivism in economic literature. It highlights the author's ideas related to current analytical results in behavioral and institutional research.

The development in technology and internet increased the amount of options that the decision maker can choose from. The more options a decision maker has, the more likely it will lead to poor decision making. This is called the paradox of choice. In order to avoid this paradox, one can get help from software systems. These systems are generally called Decision Support Systems (DSS) and they assist decision makers to make the best decision. DSS are used in education sector both by the administrators and the teachers in addition to the students. This study analyzes the articles related to DSS in the education sector and classifies them accordingly. As a result, there are two major categories. One of them is “Management Oriented DSS” and the other one is the “Student Oriented DSS”. Management-oriented decision-making systems assist managers in make crucial strategic decisions about the future, such as fixture selection, research and development and laboratory requirements, and personnel and financial resource planning. Student-centered methods improve the efficiency of learning activities and make school-university choices easier. Model and system development studies that aid decision-making in the education ecosystem from the perspectives of schools, teachers, and students were investigated in depth and presented in light of solution recommendations brought up by education stakeholders.

When Desired Extensive Choices leads to Paralysis
While Lesser Choice has Greater Satisfaction;

The variable of controlled choice was examined in affective processing, in the context of an online multiple choice questionnaire for a holiday incentive up to four hundred dollars. Participants were exposed to either a high or low volume of hotels, whereby they would select one of the hotels displayed from the Gold Coast, Australia as a primary destination to stay at. Findings suggest, less options participants exhibited more satisfaction than extensive choice participants. In contrast it was reported that although more choice is desirable less choice is more satisfying. Together, these findings reflect that fewer choice options will be less difficult, lead to greater satisfaction of the choice made, and more motivated to win the incentive than consequently that of extensive freedom of choice.