Do you ever feel overwhelmed by options when you need to make a decision? There’s not something wrong with you (well, specifically you, anyway): the phenomenon is totally real, and it’s called the choice overload effect.

The average grocery store stocks 31,530 items. Amazon has over 600 million products listed for sale. And every month, 75 million people on Tinder are sifting through each others’ profiles for a match. No wonder you’re overwhelmed.

Most of us have grown up with a built-in assumption that the more choices you have – in other words, the more freedom you have – the more likely you will be to make the best choice, and be happiest about it.

The truth is (mostly) the opposite.

Here’s how choice overload is affecting you – and how to combat it to reduce overwhelm and make choices more easily and be happier about them.

How, when, and why you’re feeling the choice overload effect

The value of choice depends on our ability to perceive differences between the options.”

–Sheena Iyengar

Choice overload effect, also known as overchoice, happens when you have too many options available to you and your decision-making ability crumbles. It’s highly related to decision fatigue. When you’re feeling it, you’re less able to make a good decision, and you’re less likely to be satisfied with your final choice. You may even choose nothing, instead of making a decision. (Just what you needed, right?)

You’re most likely to experience choice overload when:

• Your choices look the same, at least at first. When all your choices appear equally good, you’ll need to painstakingly compare each option against the others to select the best one – which is mentally draining.
• You are making a decision in an area you’re not confident in or don’t know much about. When you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, it is more overwhelming to dig in and learn what differentiates your options so you can make a decision. I’ve certainly felt this every time I’ve entered a car dealership or tried to choose between options in a health insurance plan.
• You have a short amount of time to decide. When deciders feel that they’ve been rushed to make a decision, they’re less likely to be happy with their choice. You’ll feel this more profoundly when choosing from larger selections of options, and also be more likely to feel regret.
• You don’t have a pre-existing preference between the options. When you already have an opinion about which option to choose, you’re less likely to feel choice overload.

Examples of the choice overload effect in research

Perhaps you’ve heard of the jam experiment, a classic study published in 2000. (Millenial math tells me this was a mere 10 years ago.) The researchers set up a jam tasting stall in a grocery store. On some days, they offered shoppers samples of 24 different jams, and on others, they offered a selection of just six jams to try. Regardless of the number of options available, most people tried 1-2 jams. But while 30% of those who tried six jams went on to purchase a jam, only 3% of people who tried from the selection of 24 jams did. From this, we learn that it’s easier to commit to a choice when you’re selecting from fewer options.

Another experiment from the same study used chocolate, as most Decision Lady Approved™ experiments do. This time, groups of students were presented with either six or 30 chocolates, from which they chose one and sampled it. The students who selected from the group of 30 chocolates found the decision-making process more enjoyable – which at first seems counter-intuitive, but tracks with the idea we discussed earlier that we think we want more choices available to us. But, that same group was also less satisfied with their final choice than the students who selected from only six chocolates. That group found the process easier and less frustrating, but not as enjoyable. Once again, choosing from smaller selections makes for an easier choice.

Effects of choice overload

[Choice] produces paralysis rather than liberation.”

–Barry Schwartz

Those feelings of overwhelm aren’t the only thing brought on by the choice overload effect. It can also: 

• Result in decision fatigue, which can result in procrastination, impulsivity, decision avoidance, and indecision
• Escalate your expectations. The more options you have available, the stronger the feeling that there has to be something perfect out there – so you’d better keep looking. I experienced this just the other day when scrolling through beach house listings to pick one to rent for a family vacation. Though I already had a list of 10 options that I really should have been narrowing down, I couldn’t stop myself from checking “just one more” website to see if the mind-blowingly ideal house (that was somehow cheaper than the rest) could be out there.
• Make you less satisfied with your decision. I’ll have to be careful when I visit that beach house this summer not to assume that just because there’s a disappointing element – an uncomfortable mattress, no pans in the kitchen – I don’t jump to assuming that one of the other options on my list would have been better. After all, when you’ve chosen from many options, you’re more likely to feel regret that you didn’t, in fact, find that perfect option. I know many online daters have experienced the same thing, continuing to swipe even after they’ve made ostensibly good matches.
• Affect your mental health. Repeated decision fatigue and choice overload can lead to anxiety, depression, regret, and guilt. I don’t think the number of mustards at the grocery store alone is going to do this, but pay attention to the number of decisions you’re making, and the number of choices available in each decision, as you go about your day.

The optimum number of choices

While so far we’ve focused on situations when the number of choices is overwhelming, it’s worth noting that having too few choices can also make you dissatisfied.

The best number of choices to leave you happiest after making a decision is probably between 8 and 10. Any more than ten options starts to lead to poorer decision-making, as it’s challenging for your brain to evaluate more than that many options at a time.

When is the science behind choice overload being used against you?

On this blog, I’ll make a habit of pointing out ways that marketers and other people with insight into decision-making processes use their knowledge to persuade you to make a certain decision. Look: I built my career in marketing. While I (hope I) never employed nefarious practices in my roles – which were generally marketing toward businesses rather than individual consumers – I got a ton of insight and hands-on experience into the ways marketers use language, design, and emotion to affect your decision-making.

I want to share that knowledge with you, so you can be aware of the ways your mindset may be affected by people with a vested interest in you deciding a certain way, i.e. buying their products, so you can make the best choices for you outside of their influence. 

So in this case, how do marketers use the knowledge about choice overload effect to persuade you?

They make some choices more familiar

One of the main tenets of marketing is familiarity, which is gained by exposing you to products over and over again. If you need to decide on a shampoo and all the bottles seem the same to you, you might grab one from Dove – not realizing that it’s because Dove has put a lot of money and effort into making sure their name seems most familiar to your mind, so you bypass the choice overload by having one option already seem best.

They make some choices more appealing to you.

For products you’re not already familiar with, there are shortcuts to make them seem the best anyway. Product designers use visual shortcuts so you process information faster, giving you the illusion that you’ve made a deeper analysis than you really have. Another common tactic is “social proof”, or showing a buyer that other people have chosen this product, so you should too. This might show up as quotes from buyers or authorities like doctors; statistics about how many people have purchased the product; pop-ups at the bottom of your screen about recent buyers; prominent 5-star reviews; etc. Don’t get trapped by making decision shortcuts at the expense of evaluating your options based on the criteria you actually care about, like price, ingredients, ethical production, durability, versatility, etc.

They give you fewer choices.

Most of the time, marketers don’t want you to have choice overload. They don’t want to risk you feeling overwhelmed and choosing not to choose. So, they make it seem like there are only a few choices…and you have to pick one of them.  For example, subscription services often show three plans, with the middle one highlighted as “most popular”. The popular one may be appealing, or you may think the cheaper option seems like a good deal, but either way, that’s a win for them. It’s kind of like when I ask my preschooler: do you want to walk to the bathtub, or should I carry you? She doesn’t have the option to skip the bath, but when you’re a consumer, you always have the option to walk away without buying anything.

What to do when you’re feeling the choice overload effect

Now to the good stuff: so what do you actually do when it seems like there’s just too many options? Here are some strategies to try.

Take your time 

Choice overload is tied to the amount of time you have to make a decision. Avoid feeling rushed. Particularly for larger decisions, make a timeline and consider breaking your decision down into discrete steps, each with their own deadline. It may be helpful to give yourself time to browse options during a set timeframe, without any pressure to commit yet.

Break decisions into chunks, and use attributes to eliminate options. 

When I was scrolling through those beach house options, I realized I needed that time to browse mentioned above. I set a one-hour timer, during which I was allowed to add options to my list. When the time was up, my next step was to eliminate options from my list by attribute. First, I ordered by cost, and deleted the costliest third. Then, I checked the number of bedrooms, and removed those that didn’t have enough sleeping space. Then I took a qualitative look at the distance from the beach, space to hang out, and amenities, and selected the best from the options that remained.

Get help from an expert

This can be a professional expert, or simply someone you know who has more experience in the arena than you do. When I was last car shopping, I called my brother Sam, who loves cars so much I’m pretty sure runs a car related subreddit for fun. Not something we siblings have in common. I told him a couple things we had in mind – price, safety, reasonable fuel efficiency, ease of getting kids in and out of car seats – and he was able to make some recommendations that vastly narrowed down the field of options. If you don’t have a friend or family member to ask, you could look for genuine reviews online, email an expert with a question, or even hire someone to help for bigger decisions like career choices. Another option is to be your own outside expert imagine you’re making the decision for someone else.

Eat

No, really, the hanger is real. When you’re hungry, you’re more likely to prioritize immediate gratification, even when your decision isn’t food-related. Grab a snack or eat a full meal before taking on an overwhelming decision.

Accept a “good enough” decision 

As Barry Schwartz put it, lower your expectations. You’re never going to know for sure if a choice you make is best, and you’ll run yourself into the ground trying to find the best option in every scenario. And, as discussed above, regret it anyway, if you don’t preemptively adjust your mindset. So, what you need to do is think about what issue at hand you need to solve, and what elements will allow you to address it. If my beach house had enough space for everyone to sleep and was within our budget…well, it was probably good enough. If you need to pick something to eat for dinner, anything will do, as long as it’s food. Without the ability to fully evaluate every option on every possible scale, and see into the future to boot, you’ll never know the perfect option. But you can find one that’s good enough, and that will do.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by too many options? How do you usually respond?