1st June 2022, The Mindful Entrepreneur

📅 Thought for today:

‘Years of research in psychology has shown that rewards and punishments can be very effective in changing behavior. But, at the same time, they can create an addiction to rewards and punishments.’

— Barry Schwartz

#thoughtfortoday #choice #tyranny #paradox #decisions #property

In 2004 Barry Schwartz wrote a paper for Scientific American titled “The Tyranny of Choice”.

He went on to write a book called “The Paradox of Choice”.

Tyranny is not a good word in some quarters I imagine.

The point is the same though, that too much choice leads to indecision.

Whilst the book is in the social psychology category it rapidly became a business bestseller.

Marketing people the world over understood that too much choice is a bad thing and that too little choice leads to suspicion and lack of trust.

We have come to understand that a middle way – a choice of three – is an excellent way of manipulating a consumer.

Why is this on my mind?

Because in looking for a house to live in, and having almost the freedom of England, Scotland, and Wales, I’ve learned two things.

It gets very difficult to make comparisons between properties, and that rental prices across the UK are much closer than purchase prices – broadly speaking and excluding property hotspots and inner-city areas, the same size houses are priced the same across the UK.

I am wondering about collusion – it strikes me as very odd indeed.

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