I think great decisions come from high self-esteem

Once again, less is more.

Sheena Lyengar shared how businesses can increases sales by reducing the number of choices that the customers have to make using scientifically proven ways:

1. Cut - reduce the number of products and make their differences distinct.
2. Concretisation - make the differences between products obvious and as physical and as visual as possible.
3. Categorisation - clear categorisation helps customers in making decisions by helping them to tell the products apart.
4. Condition for complexity - if there is really a need for customers to make many decisions, let them have the simpler ones first.

What also struck me was that Sheena shared that CEOs made more decisions daily than normal people do and  within a shorter time do. I came to realise that there is no right or wrong choice. Choices are made based on one's principle and beliefs. I observed that people with high self-esteem assert their choices and fight for them based on their strong principles and beliefs. 

Lesser Choices Allow Better Decisions

Sheena Lyengar shared about a survey that was conducted on parents who had to make decisions to take their children off life support because their children's conditions had gotten too critical. In the US, parents got to make the decision while in France, the doctors made the decision. Research showed that French parents felt more positive then US parents about their decisions. However, when US parents were asked if they would let the doctors made the decision, majority of them said no, due to their upbringing. 

Barry Schwatz put forth with the example of buying a pair of jeans that when more choices available today, we have a higher expectation that there will definitely be a pair of jeans that will fit us perfectly. So even after we had spend many hours trying on dozens of jeans and bought a pair of jeans, we may not feel as satisfied as we should be as compared to when there were fewer choices or no choice.

In a nutshell, lesser choices allow better decisions.