Sheena Iyengar

Why Too Many Choices Make You Buy Less!

🔥 Too Many Choices = No Choices: The Psychology of Why You’re Stuck 🔥 There was a famous 2000 study by Sheena Iyengar (yeah, we’re all guessing that pronunciation) and Mark Lepper, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. It’s known as the Jam Study — and no, not the kind that goes on toast. 🍓 Here’s what they found: 👉 People given 24 types of jam to sample were way LESS likely to buy anything than people who were only offered 6 options. Translation? More choices = less action. Period. This is one of the most cited studies in consumer psychology for a reason. Your brain wasn’t built for a world with 50+ streaming platforms, 12 dating apps, and 97 different oat milks. You think you’re free, but you’re actually paralyzed. Your brain’s just cycling through a buffet of existential dread. And yeah, decision fatigue is real. A legit cognitive phenomenon. You burn out on decisions like your phone battery dies after 32 open apps. 🧠 Too many options don’t empower you — they exhaust you. You’re not choosing between apples and oranges anymore — you’re picking between 47 flavors of stress and regret. And let’s be honest, you’ll probably just pick cereal for dinner again anyway.