It's an interesting theory. That the assault of choices offered up by turning on the TV, or eating breakfast, or going to a coffee shop, a cinema, a DVD store, a restaurant, or going to work, or stumbling down supermarket aisles, that endless cycle of small and often insignificant decisions, turns out to be such a legion of intrusion into the way our minds have learned to work over hundreds of thousands of years that humans are left less able to function at peak performance :
Woe to the caffeinated, for gone are the days of simply grabbing a coffee. Today's order requires surviving a gauntlet of choices: Latte or Americano? Flavored or plain? Cream and sugar? Small, medium or large? And the list goes on.
New research shows that such daily decisions eat up limited mental resources, ultimately rendering our self-control into mush. Which means making too many decisions might be why many people can't stick to a diet, finish a big project or even complete simple daily tasks.
"It's a strange paradox because human beings are drawn to choice," said study co-author Kathleen Vohs, a marketing professor at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. "We love having more choices, but at the same time the human psyche is easily overcome by them."
Read the rest here. Or don't. I'm not asking you to make a decision, nor do I seek to cause further option anxiety. I won't add to the lessening of your mental resources.
Now there are ads for mind-bogglingly expensive sleep spas (you pay to go somewhere to sleep uninterrupted) showing up in the weekend papers, perhaps the time has come for a holiday resort where you are required to make absolutely no decisions at all, all day, everyday.
It could be called 'Whatever...'
