Question: Do you think that choice is a factor in stress? I noticed that people sometimes get slightly stressed when they have too much choice at a supermarket or general shop.

Phill Agnew answered on 21 Nov 2019:

Really interesting question!

I’m not so sure about the stress part, but I know as a rule of thumb that consumers prefer less choice.

In fact there’s a famous study where the researchers set up two stalls selling jam.

One stall sold 24 different types of jam, while the other sold just 6.

Common wisdom would suggest that the 24 variants would have sold more, after all the consumer could have found a jam they really liked.

But it wasn’t the case. Instead, people are 10x more likely to buy from the stall that sold just six varieties!