“Freedom and autonomy are critical to our well-being. And choice is critical to freedom and autonomy. Nonetheless, though modern Americans have more choice than any group of people ever has before, and thus, presumable, more freedom and autonomy, we don’t seem to be benefitting from it psychologically” – Barry Schwartz[1]

                In his recent publishing, the Paradox of Choice, Professor Barry Schwartz strongly suggests that the increase of choices in modern day society is contributing to the decrease of well-being among Americans. His work inspired me to pursue this research topic, focusing on a smaller group of Americans whom I can relate to: the college students of the country. Schwartz pointed out in his work that there is a great increase in depression among Americans of all ages. However, the age group affected the most by this increase is those of ages 18-24. According to several sources, including the National Mental Health Association, the statistics for college mental health is as follows:

·         In 2000, 10% of college students were diagnosed with depression

·         In 2004, 15% of college students met the criteria for clinical depression

·         In 2006, more than 30% of the nation’s college students reported that they have been so depressed at one point they could not function

Even more concerning, suicide has moved from being the third leading cause of death among college students in 2002 to being the second leading cause of death in 2008, right behind traffic accidents. Naturally, the question arises: what is the cause of this dramatic increase?

                The cause of depression is very complex, mainly because depression is almost always a result of a combination of causes, not a single one. In answering the question above, a great number of researchers agree that the increase in social pressure is among the main causes. Today’s students face greater academic demands and higher expectations than before. Thus pressure from teachers, peers, and parents add a great deal of stress, which contributes to the perilous downward slope toward depression. Other factors have also been mentioned, including the increase of information and higher exposure to different people, ideas, and temptations. However, very few give recognition to the underlying cause of these factors: the increase of options and opportunities. Here I use the term “opportunities” to reflect the common perception that college students are better off with more options that will lead them to the various different paths of success.

With the improvement of communicative technology, many new resources and opportunities that are now available to students surely surpasses the number of choices that previous generations had. In 1980, there was 3241 colleges in America; 10 years later in 1990, this number has risen to 3559; at the beginning of the 21st century in 2000, the U.S. had a total of 4084; and by 2005, there are more than 4200 higher education institutions and this number is still rising continuously[2]. As you can see, even the first step to higher education – choosing a college – has become much more rigorous for students today than students 30 years ago. But that is not all, this process repeats many times in our students’ educational careers – choosing a college, choosing an essay topic to write for each of their applications, choosing classes, choosing extra-curricular and volunteer opportunities, choosing a major, choosing an internship, etc…. In short, a typical, modern-day college student is bombarded with choices every single day, a concept known as “choice overload”.

A well-known experiment regarding choice overload was conducted at Stanford University by Mark Lepper and Sheena Iyengar[3]. In this study, 193 Stanford students in a social psychology class were selected as the study group. There were five teaching assistants in the class who lead two sections each. The class was given an extra credit assignment where they can watch the movie “Twelve Angry Men” and then write a two-page essay on it based on one of the given topics on their assignment sheet. Because the TAs of the course had two sections each, every TA would give one of their sections an assignment sheet with six essay topics and then give their other section an assignment sheet with thirty essay topics. These topics were carefully chosen so that they are all comparable in difficulty. A total of 70 students received the six-topics assignment – let’s call this group A; and 123 students received the thirty-topics assignment – let’s call this group B.

The results reveal that extensive-choice has a demotivating effect on these college students. In group A, 74% of the students completed the assignment. In group B, only 65% of the students completed the assignment. In addition, the average score that group A students received on their assignment was 10% higher than that of group B students. In other words, the students with extensive choice assignment were less likely to complete their work; and even if they do, they are less likely to perform well compared to those with more limited choice. When a student does not do his work in class, he will not perform as well, and that will result in self-dissatisfaction. This tells us that such large increase in options can harm the students, rather than benefit them.

Aside from demotivation, the abundance of choices can also scare people away from making a decision or completing certain tasks. This is because when we have so many options to choose from, we are more hesitant to make a decision because we are less certain which option would be best. Uncertainty can affect our reasons for acting. We may be reluctant to act without some clear reasons. So the result is, as Professor Baron at Pennsylvania State University put it: “If we are uncertain about the reasons, we may defer the decision”[4]. Here, we are talking about putting off decisions that are difficult to make, which can equate to procrastination, which can then lead to stress and anxiety as the decision deadline approaches.

One study shows that people have this tendency to defer decisions or to do nothing as a result of conflict from not having reasons to choose or reject more than one option. In this experiment by Tversky and Shafir [5], subjects had filled out a questionnaire and expected to be paid $1.50. Half of the subjects were offered a metal pen worth about $2 instead of their payment, and only 25% of these subjects took the $1.50, the rest took the pen. The other half of the subjects were offered a choice of the same pen or two plastic pens. Here 53% of these subjects took the money instead of either of the other options.

From this, we can analyze that when subjects are presented with more options of pen to choose from, they found the decision more difficult to make, and therefore prefer to stick to the default option of taking the money. In doing this, the subjects that took the money have successfully avoided having to make a decision about the pen. The pen study illustrates how having more options, which is supposed to be good, backfires and instead scare people away from choosing in general. When people postpone their decisions due to personal uncertainty, that can be deem as a form of procrastination. Of course, many people are well aware of the consequences of procrastinations such as tardiness, lack of preparedness, missed opportunities, poor performance, etc… It is safe to say that none of these results make people happy.

So then, if procrastination is a result of choice overload, it would make sense why college students are affected the most by this. First off, we know that 90% of students procrastinate, and that 25% are chronic procrastinators[6]. If adding another option of pen as reward has caused the subjects in the above study to regress back to the default option of taking the money, and thus not having to choose between the pens; then maybe adding more opportunities and choices for college students has the same effect. That is to say: students procrastinate more in their decision-making because having to select between so many options can be time-consuming, frustrating, and overall difficult. And we know that procrastination can lead to feelings of guilt, inadequacy, depression and self-doubt among students. It interferes with the academic and personal success of students. Hence, if choice overload is contributing to the increased depression in America, then we should expect students to be the group most affected by this factor because of their tendency to procrastinate. Unfortunately, our problem does not stop here. Up to this point, I have discussed how choice overload can affect students negatively prior to the decision being made. Sadly, choice overload will continue to haunt our youth, even after they have overcome all the troubles of the decision-making process.

The emotional responses to the outcomes of a decision can have a great effect on our mood and well-being, especially when the response is a negative one. The famous philosopher once said: “The perceived better attracts more than the perceived worse” and that “No one voluntarily acts against his or her current perceived interests”. The key word here is “perceived”: what something appears to be. When a student makes a decision, he chooses what appears to be the better option. But what appears to be the better option might not be the better option. Naturally, if the decision indeed turns out to be the better option, this person will feel joy and relief. Meanwhile, if the decision turns out to not be the better option, this person will feel disappointment and regret. According to several regret model theories, “regret is defined as the difference between the value of the obtained outcome and that of the alternative not chosen”[7]. Our moods do not simply reflect that fact that we regret the decision, but also by how much we regret it. By this definition, the value of regret is larger when we compare the “best alternative” to the current outcome than when we compare “an alternative” to the current outcome.

I bring up the concept of “the best” because it leads to a shocking discovery that not only is college students affected most by depression via choice overload; but more specifically, it is the overachieving students – the most talented youth of the country, who are suffering its consequences.

                One fact that stood out to me as I was doing my research was the fact that student bodies of this nation’s top universities have depression rate much higher than the national average of 30%. At Harvard, it is estimated that 47% of its students have become depressed at some point during their time there. The number is 44% and 40% for Cornell and Berkeley, respectively. Yale reported that roughly 30% of its students seek counseling services for stress-related issues, but some findings have suggested that the number can be as high as 65% because only a portion of depressed students actually seek help. There is very few exceptions to this trend, one being Stanford University, where only 23% of its students reported being depressed at some point in a survey. One of the theories that can explain this finding is the “maximize vs. satisficer” concept that views happiness as a personality outcome.

                In relation to our topic regarding choice and happiness, a maximizer is defined as someone who always opts for “the best choice” and a satisficer is someone who will settle with “a good enough choice”. By default, maximizers are your classic overachievers and perfectionists. A maximizer is not happy unless his decision brings the best possible outcome in comparison to the alternatives. Whereas the satisficer is happy as long as the outcome of his decision meets the criteria that he set to achieve. As regret is defined in this paper, the maximizer will always compare his outcome with the best possible outcome, which can only yield a relative value smaller than or equal to 0; and the satisficer will only compare his outcome with criteria for the outcome, which can be negative or positive. In 2000, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology published a study which indicates that 70% of college students tend to be maximizers[8]. The study also shows that maximizers are significantly less happy than a satisficer.

                It is reasonable to assume that there are many overachievers at prestigious universities so it would only make sense that if choice overload is indeed a great burden, then our overachieving students are carrying the heaviest burdens of all – perhaps that is why our top universities have the highest rates of depression. Many of the most talented youth are maximizers. For maxmizers, there can only be one best choice. So if a maximizer has two options, then he has a 50% chance of picking the best choice; if a maxmizer has 100 options, then he has a 1% chance of picking the best choice. In other words, an overachieving student has a 50% chance of being happy with his decision when he has two options; and only a 1% chance of being happy with his decision when he has 100 options. As you can see, by giving students with high performance an abundance of opportunities, it is far more likely that we are risking their well-being rather than helping them. Not only will our top students have a difficult time gather information so they can decide on the optimal selection; but they run a much greater chance of regretting their decision later on when there are an overwhelming number of alternatives.

                Ironically, colleges and universities nowadays are trying to make themselves appear more attractive to prospective students by advertising the numerous opportunities they have available on campuses. The underlying assumption of this action is that students want and need a large number of options to choose from; that having more choices will reinforce their autonomy and thus increase their well-being. However, this practice holds many contradictions and perhaps it is time that our scholarly community gives the relationship between choice and happiness the attention it deserves. The more we know about a certain problem, the easier it is to fix it.

[1] Paradox of Choice – Pg 99

[2] http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d06/tables/dt06_005.asp

[3] Lepper, Mark R., and Sheena S. Iyengar. “When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?” (1999): Web. 5 Oct. 2009. .

[4] Baron, Jonathan. “Thinking and Deciding” Pg 273

[5] Tversky, A., & Shafir, E. (1992). The disjunction effect in choice under uncertainty. Psychological science, 3, 305-309.

[6] http://ub-counseling.buffalo.edu/stressprocrast.shtml

[7] Landman, Janet. “Regret: the persistence of the possible” Pg 151

[8] Volume 83 Pg. 1182