{"id":60,"date":"2009-03-22T14:52:01","date_gmt":"2009-03-22T14:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp\/2009\/03\/the_paralysis_of_choice\/"},"modified":"2009-03-22T14:52:01","modified_gmt":"2009-03-22T14:52:01","slug":"the_paralysis_of_choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/03\/the_paralysis_of_choice.html","title":{"rendered":"The Paralysis of Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Taiwanese study<\/a> of people using online dating sites finds that “the more our brains have to search through, the more difficult it also
\nbecomes to ignore irrelevant information. A person is also more likely
\nto be distracted (or attracted to) attributes that were not initially
\nrelevant or pertinent to their original search.”<\/p>\n

\"dating.jpg\"<\/span>This is the classic consumer conundrum. Too much choice can be paralyzing. Sociologists report that the amount of leisure time we have today is about the same as we had 20 years ago. Yet ask people if they have more or less, and they overwhelmingly report they have less. Why? One theory is that because there were fewer choices 20 years ago, it was relatively easy to decide what you wanted to do with your free time. <\/p>\n

Now we have so many choices competing for our time that the act of deciding what you want to do can be anxiety-producing. Infinite choice, it turns out, makes it more difficult to decide what is important to you. We need ways of organizing information into an understandable framework. That’s what matchmakers do. That’s what journalists do. That’s what artists do. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Taiwanese study of people using online dating sites finds that “the more our brains have to search through, the more difficult it also becomes to ignore irrelevant information. A person is also more likely to be distracted (or attracted to) attributes that were not initially relevant or pertinent to their original search.” This is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-60","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ePZm-Y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":124,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/07\/the_tyranny_of_choice.html","url_meta":{"origin":60,"position":0},"title":"The Tyranny of Choice","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"July 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Choice is good right? Malcom Gladwell does a great talk on how Howard Moskowitz revolutionized marketing by understanding the dynamics of choice. His example here is spaghetti sauce. Traditional marketing strategy had been to get together focus groups and ask them what they liked in a good sauce. Then groups\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/07\/the_tyranny_of_choice.html#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":357,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/07\/attention-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":60,"position":1},"title":"Pay Attention! If Selling Tickets Is Your Business Model, You've Got A Problem","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"July 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Another lifetime ago we were in the Manufacturing Economy. We made things. Then we were in the Transportation Economy. 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