Gelato

Why am I going to Italy? Because I want a gelato everyday! Gelato was first served in ancient Rome and made from mountain snow, and now it is a refined frozen treat--similar to ice cream (but better!). There are countless numbers of flavors--if I really wanted to, I bet I could eat a different flavor everyday that I'm in Rome. While gelato is typically flavored using fresh fruit purees, cocoa, and nut pastes (thank you Wikipedia), it can also include other ingredients like chocolate, nuts, confections, cookies, and biscuits. There are so many good options, that I'm really not sure which one to try first, which ones which ones to eat more of, and which ones--if any--that I should avoid altogether (probably just coffee)--maybe I'll just get too overwhelmed by the possibilities that I won't eat anything. While that is highly doubtful, it does bring up a term I want to discuss called, option overload--which is the real purpose of this post (in case you didn't pick up on my sarcasm with the gelato, though I am excited about it:). But back to option overload--the name is pretty self explanatory, but I'll elaborate on it anyway by referring to a fairly recent study that my friend Dave, who is in the business school, told me about.

The Study:

A team of researchers decided to study how individuals react to and make decisions when they have 1) few options, or 2) many options. In the study, they sold jams. The first day of the study, they set out 20+ samples of jam and allowed potential buyers to sample as many flavors as they wanted. The second day, researchers only set out 2 or 3 samples of jams for potential buyers. The findings: sales skyrocked on the second day--the day with fewer options. Why didn't individuals buy more jam on the day when they had more options? OPTION OVERLOAD. See, although most people believe, "the more options, the better," in actuality, most people can't make up their mind when this is the case. Rather than weighing the pros and cons of all the options, most people can't deal with the pressure of coming to a decision, so....they don't--they choose to not choose anything, rather than taking a risk and making the wrong choice. This is true in so many different aspects of life, including my field study.

Luckily, I've already decided that I'm going to Italy and I know what the basic tenets of my study, but I really do have so many remaining options--the main one I'm debating over now is what questions I will ask those individuals that I study. There are so many good options! I could, of course, ask every single question that comes to my mind, but for the sake of my study--and my sanity--I won't. I am in the process of deciding, but I think my best bet is to keep the questions simple, let individuals elaborate on them, and ask follow up questions as the situation allows. Narrowing down my options is hard, but I think minimizing my options will help me, and I'll be able down to narrow down the questions. I'd rather learn a lot about a more specific thing, then try to divide my attention on too many things and not gain a deep understanding of any of them.