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Are you a victim of the overchoice effect?
你是过多选择效应的受害者么？
From clothes to phones to retirement plans, people today have an incredible amount of options to choose from.
从衣服、手机到退休计划，等待人们选择的东西实在太多了。
This is supposed to be a good thing, right?
这应该是件好事不是？
The more options there are, the easier it should be to find our perfect phone, jeans, or whatever else.
选择越多，就更容易选到完美的手机、牛仔裤等等。
In reality, studies have shown that having too many choices can actually have pretty negative consequences. This is called the overchoice effect.
事实上，研究表明选择太多真的会产生很多负面结果。这被称为过多选择效应。
In 1974, the American Marketing Association published an article, first demonstrating this effect.
1974年美国市场营销协会出版的一篇文章，首次证明了此效应。
Researchers, Jacoby, Speller, and Kohn, had subjects choose between a variety of laundry detergents.
研究员雅各布、斯佩莱以及科恩要在多种衣用洗涤剂中选择。
In the end, they found that when they presented subjects with more types of laundry detergent
最终，他们发现衣用洗涤剂的种类、信息越多，
and more information about the detergents, subjects ended up choosing worse products.
选择结果就越糟糕。
An article published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology showed a similar study.
《个性与社会心理学杂志》上的一篇文章也表明了类似的研究。
Researchers, Iyengar and Lepper, provided subjects with a variety of jams.
研究员艾扬格和莱珀则要选择宽短裤。
They discovered that, while more choices seemed appealing, customers were actually less likely to buy something the more options there were.
他们发现，虽然更多的选择看似很诱惑，但顾客选择越多，购买可能性就越小。
And those that did buy something were less satisfied with their choice.
而那些买了的人则对自己的选择并不满意。
A capitalist society isn't looking too hot now, is it?
资本主义社会现在不流行了不是？
For some reason, when people have more options they make worse decisions and feel dissatisfied with their choices.
由于某些原因，当人们的选择越多，做出的选择就越糟糕，而对他们的选择满意度也越低。
According to the psychologist, Barry Schwartz, the reason people feel worse when they have more options is that they are trying to pick the best option.
据心理学家巴里.施瓦茨所说，人们感觉糟糕的原因是因为他们总想选最好的那一个。
Moreover, people will always feel like they had chosen, or could have chosen something better.
而且人们总是觉得自己能选到更好的。
Happily, the overchoice effect can be avoided.
幸运的是，过多选择效应可被避免。
An article found that the overchoice effect can be reduced by other variables, like time.
一篇文章发现过多选择效应会被其他变量而缩减，比如时间。
For instance, subjects who have more time to assess their choices don't experience dissatisfaction after making their choices.
例如，接触选择的时间越多，人们反而在做出选择后，不会有失望感。
The Journal of Cognitive Psychology published an article expanding this research in 2016.
《认知心理学杂志》2016年发表了一篇文章对这项研究进行了扩展。
They discovered that most other research on the overchoice effect only looked at adults, thus excluding other age groups.
他们发现关于过多选择效应的多数其他研究仅观察了成人，而没有观察其他年龄群体。
So they ran a study that looked at how the overchoice effect worked on children, teenagers, adults, and elders by means of the cookie study.
所以他们进行了一项研究，通过饼干试验观察过多选择效应对孩子、青少年、成年人和老年人的影响。
At a restaurant in Italy, researchers set up different arrangements of cookies.
在意大利的一家餐厅里，研究员们整理了不同组合的饼干。
A small display with fewer choices, and a large display with more choices.
一个小组选择少，另一个大组选择多。
They randomly asked restaurant goers if they would like to participate.
他们随机询问来餐厅的人是否愿意参与。
After the subjects were chosen, they were randomly assigned to the small display or the large display,
选定之后，他们随机分配大小组，
where they had to choose a cookie, take a survey about how they felt about their choice, eat the cookie, and then take another survey about how satisfied they felt.
参与者需要选出一块饼干，并调查他们对自己的选择的感觉并吃掉饼干，然后再调查他们是否满意。
The study found that while teenagers and adults both experienced the negative feelings associated with the overchoice effect, children and elders did not.
研究发现由于过多选择效应，青少年和成年人都有负面感觉，而孩子和老年人并没有。
The researchers concluded that this was probably because of their different approaches to making their decisions.
研究员总结到这可能是因为他们最选择的方法不一样。
Children usually have very strong opinions about their preferences and know exactly what they like.
孩子通常对自己的偏好态度强烈而且他们知道自己喜欢什么。
Elders tend to make choices that are 'good enough' and not 'the best.'
老年人会选择那些‘足够好’且‘不是最好’的。
Adults and teenagers often try to pick what they think is the best option overall, which is why they become disappointed in the end.
成年人和青少年常选择他们认为是最好的，这就是他们最后会失望的原因。
So, are you a victim of the overchoice effect? Do you try to pick the best option and feel unsatisfied when it's not perfect?
所以你是过多选择效应的受害者么？你是不是老想选最好的，而不完美的选择会让你感到失望呢？
If you do, try taking a different approach. It can help you more to pick up what's 'good enough' like elders do, or what appeals to you most individually. In the end, it's your choice.
如果你是，就尝试下不同方法。这样能够帮助你像老年人一样选择‘够好的’或你个人最喜好的。最终都是你自己的选择。
Comment below how you've managed to overcome the overchoice effect. And don't forget to subscribe for more Psych2Go!
在下方留言谈谈你是怎么克服过多选择效应的。不要忘记订阅Psych2Go！
