by Azra Hussain
Is decision paralysis, a modern-day challenge caused by an abundance of choices? What are the psychological, historical, and societal factors contributing to the difficulty of making decisions?
Picture this: you’re sitting at the dinner table, ready to eat, but you want to watch a show while doing so. You open Netflix and are bombarded with a new release, a show you have watched at least a dozen times, a very anticipated new movie, and some series you have never heard of before. You stare blankly at the screen, remote in hand, trying to decide what to watch, and by the time you have made a decision, your food has gone cold. Why did this happen to you? There is a very counterintuitive explanation for that.
Decision paralysis (or analysis paralysis) is a phenomenon most people face – especially in the modern world – due to an abundance of choices. So often do we get caught up in picking the ‘perfect’ solution that we are unable to operate within an appropriate time frame. Practically, it should not take one long to buy a new shirt or a bottle of soda, but the sheer amount of options we have now causes us to become ‘paralysed’. It might seem strange, and somewhat counterproductive, but it is important to remember that nobody in the history of mankind has had as many choices to make as we do.
Humanity grew up in a world full of limitations. Specific crops could only be grown in specific climates, so there was a seasonal limit to what man could eat during a given time. There were not that many forms of entertainment and a limited amount of artistic liberty that could be taken regarding mediums. Today, you can see an artist frozen in place in the middle of a store trying to pick the perfect shade of red. The point being, that we did not have options. We did not have the freedom that technology has given us.
With the invention of fridges, we can still access out-of-season foods at any time. Due to globalization, we have at our fingertips the ability to enjoy any cuisine, any style of clothing, any sort of literature, and any medium to express our creativity. Coming back to the initial problem, we can pick any show to watch. As good as it might seem, this is the problem. Humans have not adapted to this climate. We were never supposed to have this much control over, well, much of anything, and because of that, our inability to choose controls us.
There are a lot of reasons why this happens in the first place, the most common one being the want to achieve the perfect solution: the best show to watch, the brightest shade of red, the sweetest fruit money can buy. No matter how content we think we are, we will always have second thoughts of ‘this could be better,’ through no fault of our own. In most cases, it definitely can be better. It is hard for humans to settle. It is difficult to pick something good but not the best.
Another reason why a person might have trouble making a choice and sticking to it is the fear of being wrong; picking the bad option, or making a grave mistake. This thought process is not for situations like what to eat for lunch. This sort of decision paralysis is reserved for dire, impactful circumstances, like a war or an executive order. It was heard that during World War II, the British engineers creating watercraft were more occupied with their designs than actually manufacturing them. Hearing this, Winston Churchill, then president of the United Kingdom, said, “The maxim ‘nothing avails but perfection’ may be spelt shorter: paralysis.”
There is one more reason for decision paralysis. The inability to decide what course of action to take in a complex situation can be daunting. This is a combination of the other two reasons: wanting the best outcome, and making the right move. People often find themselves at a crossroads in many junctures of their lives (which in itself is a complicated situation to be in), and the burden of choice can often be staggering. This decision paralysis can range from questions about what career path to pick to what house one should buy. Life is a hard, convoluted maze, and it can often be difficult to entangle ourselves from the myriad of situations that require immediate attention.
It is no secret that decisions shape one’s destiny. Every choice you make pushes you further down a specific path, for better or for worse. We can second-guess and procrastinate and postpone making decisions, big and small, but at the end of the day, that burden falls on us alone. As philosopher Jean-Paul Satre aptly said, “I am condemned to be free.” The inherent free will bestowed upon us is not just a privilege, but a responsibility, one we accept with every choice we make, so pick up that remote and put on a show before your food grows cold.
