Choice Overload: The Paralysis of Abundance
In 2000 two psychologists entered a high end grocery store to test a fundamental assumption of capitalism. They assumed that people love choice. That same Saturday they set up a display with twenty four varieties of exotic jam. It drew a massive crowd. On the next Saturday they displayed only six. The results shattered the conventional wisdom. The large display attracted more attention but only 3 percent of shoppers made a purchase. The small display attracted fewer people yet 30 percent bought a jar.
By reducing the options the researchers increased sales by ten times. This is Choice Overload. While we claim to want variety an abundance of options creates anxiety and indecision. The fear of making the wrong choice outweighs the desire to make any choice leading the customer to choose the only safe option available. They walk away empty handed.
Why does Choice Overload lead to paralysis?
Choice Overload leads to paralysis because every additional option increases the cognitive load and the potential for regret which eventually creates analysis paralysis.
Decision making is biologically expensive. It consumes glucose and fatigues the prefrontal cortex. When you present three options the brain can easily hold the variables in working memory. A versus B versus C. The comparison is linear. When you present twenty four options the math becomes exponential. The brain buffers.
But the real killer is Regret Minimization. When you choose one jar out of twenty four you are rejecting twenty three other possibilities. The Opportunity Cost is massive. You worry that one of the unchosen jams was the perfect one. To avoid the pain of potentially choosing the wrong jar the shopper chooses nothing. They preserve their optionality by engaging in zero consumption. The confused mind always says no. This is closely related to Loss Aversion where the fear of losing the right option freezes us.
How are we using Choice Overload to sabotage our own pricing pages?
We sabotage our pricing pages by offering too many tiers and features which forces the prospect to evaluate complex tradeoffs instead of making a simple purchase.
Founders love their features and want to show every permutation of their product. They create pricing pages that look like exploded Excel spreadsheets. Bronze and Silver and Gold and Platinum and Enterprise. Then they add a matrix of forty five checkboxes. API Access. Advanced Reporting. Priority Support.
The prospect lands on this page wanting to solve a problem but is given a homework assignment. They have to figure out if they need Advanced Reporting or just Standard Reporting. They don't know the difference. Panic sets in. They don't want to overpay for Gold but they don't want to get fired for buying Silver. They close the tab. They say they will think about this later. They never come back.
What is the cure for Choice Overload cluuter?
The cure for Choice Overload clutter is to act as a curator who removes options to guide the user to the single best choice for their needs.
The human brain loves the number three. Small and Medium and Large. Cheap and Standard and Expensive. Goldilocks understood this. On your pricing page aim for three tiers. The Decoy. The Target. The Anchor. Highlight the Target. Make it obvious. This uses the Decoy Effect to steer decisions.
If you have many products do not show them all. Use a Recommended For You quiz. Ask the user three questions about their needs and then present one option. Say that based on their answers you recommend the Business Pro plan. You have stripped away the fear. You are operating as an expert consultant. You are telling them that you have analyzed the twenty four jams. You promise they will like the Strawberry. The user feels relief. They can trust your recommendation rather than their own faulty analysis.
Read More Biases
Ready to transform your marketing?
Let's build a strategy that actually works. Book a time to chat about how we can help you scale.
Book a Demo