Experiments | The Chocolate Study by Iyengar and Lepper (2000)

examining how personal choice can affect satisfaction or regret

—134 Columbia University participants
—Each participant received 1 of 3 conditions to select chocolate flavors: ”extensive”, “limited”, or “no choice”

The conditions included— “Extensive:” 30 flavors to choose from, “Limited:” 6 flavors to choose from, and “No Choice:” a random amount of flavors with no freedom to choose. The results show that participants in the “Extensive” group enjoyed more opportunity overall, but felt a big responsibility when deciding, and that 30 options was too many to choose from. This resulted in frustration and dissatisfaction with their choice of chocolate. The participants in the “Limited” group, however, responded that the amount of options they had available (6 flavors) was "just right". The “No Choice” participants felt unsatisfied with the overall process.

At the end of the experiment, each participant chose their form of compensation: either $5 in cash or the box of chocolates from the experiment (of equal worth). The participants most satisfied, those in the “Limited” group, showed more positive correlation to their choice, exemplified by choosing the box of chocolates over cash (48%), in comparison to the “Extensive” (12%) and the “No Choice” (10%) participants.

Chocolate Study

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Designed & built by: Zohar Pomerantz | Special thanks to: Assaf Dov Cohen and Polar Team

The belief that more choice, and so more freedom, is a good thing is actually incorrect —

Choice is a real struggle when there's so much of it. The more options to choose from simply leaves us feeling overwhelmed, while having direct consequences on our mental wellbeing. This can lead to an increase in anxiety and depression, in decreased satisfaction, and regret over the choices we have already made. This issue is most commonly known as choice overload or “The Burden of Choice.”

The Project:

This project was born from personal experience, of wanting to learn more about my own decision anxiety and the reasons for why I suffer from it. Off the start, while researching the subject, I began to realize just how many other people are influenced by this same anxiety, yet feel alone in it, unaware of the existence of 'choice overload.' More so than that, while educating myself on the subject I began to feel disorientated - all the information available was scattered among different platforms, hidden in tiresome textual formats that would cause the average person to abandon the effort of learning altogether. “The Burden of Choice” was designed as a solution to these problems, creating a visual platform to expose users to the issue— providing a place to experience and learn more about it, while giving the issue the proper acknowledgment and recognition that it deserves.