The Hindu Business Line : High expectation, low satisfaction

Consider this. Recently, an acquaintance was narrating about his trip to a boutique. His son wanted to buy a black suit, which you may think is a fairly easy choice. The boutique, however, had 10 different shades of the colour. Two hours later, the son leaves the boutique with the best suit, yet unsatisfied. The father is obviously furious — a big hole in his bank account and an unsatisfied son. You know that choices make us happy. So, why was the son unsatisfied? The answer lies in the paradox of choice. What is it?

You will relate to this analogy if you have ever lived in a hostel during your school days. Food at the hostel always borders around the unbearable. Yet, we eat the food, often without complaining.

During holidays, we are at home eating tasty food. Yet, we complain about how one dish has less salt and the other, spicy. At times, we may even refuse to eat. Why do we behave like that?

We know that the cooks at the hostel are terrible. We have less choice and, therefore, low expectations. This makes us survive through years of unbearable food.

It is different at home. We can request our mothers' to cook the dishes we like. With choice comes high expectation. Often, our mother's cooking falls short of those high expectations. And that makes us unsatisfied.

Take my acquaintance's son. He may have been satisfied if the boutique had just one dull black suit to choose from. But he had high expectations because he knew the boutique had 10 shades of the colour. That made him unsatisfied — more so because he had to pick just one and leave behind nine others!

(The author is based in Surrey, BC, Canada.)

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