Every minute if not second, we make decisions in our daily lives ranging from the most trivial to the most important ones. The image above depicts one of the rather easy decisions we make if seeking to purchase a pack of chewing gum.  Different brands & different flavors are ubiquitous in stores, depanneurs & in many other places. In his TED talk, Barry Schwartz, American psychologist, discusses about the concept of the paradox of choices. He takes us on a 19 minutes journey, intended to answer the following question: why less is more? People enjoy having many options available to them & love using their freedom of choice. So how can it be that less is more? The paradox now comes into play. It seems that the more choices people are exposed to, the higher their tendency to feel paralyzed to actually make a choice/buy.  Applying the paradox of choices to the intention or purchase of a pack of gum is an example I choose to depict the potential difficulty in a completely habitual/mundane task. But if less is indeed more, why are we presented to approximately 70 kinds of chewing gums to select from? While the repetitive buyer may choose out of habit, the person seeking to try new flavors may understand the sense of paralysis that Schwartz is referring to.

If curious: The paradox of choices by Dr. Barry Schwartz’s: http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html

So what is your favorite brand/flavor of chewing gum?

                                              Instagram picture: liveuphoria