Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Wide Choice = Narrowed Options

An interesting article on Alternet yesterday, in which it is argued that Amazon's policies of price-cutting and making as many books as possible available lead in fact to a narrowing of choice for the consumer (not to mention a squeezing of literary opportunities for the writer).

Thanks to Vanessa Gebbie via Facebook.

1 comment:

Tim Love said...

On his blog George Szirtes links to a talk about choice. In an experiment some single people were asked about what they looked for in a partner. When they met 10 candidates in a speed-dating session they chose people who matched their criteria, but when they met 20 they went for looks. The conclusion was that a wider range might not help at all when making choices - we simplify to make the decision process less onerous.