ANAYLSIS PARALYSIS

Here’s a story a lot of FiftyUps will relate to thanks to Esther Han, Consumer Affairs Editor with the Sydney Morning Herald who writes (in part) ...

Australian shoppers have never been so spoilt for choice, but a new study shows the abundance of options has left many feeling "paralysed" and, later, full of regret.

A survey of 1000 Australians found 86 per cent believe too many products was making buying decisions harder.

The study, commissioned by Choosi and conducted by Core Data Research in June, found 29 per cent of Australians had purchased a big ticket item they would later come to regret.

Consumer experts largely agree that too many choices can lead to greater dissatisfaction because expectations are raised.

The study found consumers were more likely to experience analysis paralysis when looking to buy a phone or computer, followed by life and health insurance.

The respondents said this was largely because product options in these categories were confusing and hard to compare. In the private health insurance space alone, there are more than 50,300 policy variations.

Michael Volkov, consumer behaviour expert from Deakin University, said psychologists had long spoken of the "paradox of choice", where greater choices led to heightened levels of anxiety and sometimes dissatisfaction about the final choice.

"With the internet and the amount of information we have access to, we over-complicate things, rather than giving something a go and changing if there's a major problem," he said.

"A lot of the time we look for the perfect solution and we really fear making any decision which could be an error, while on the way to a better solution."

The study also found shoppers spent more time researching online than speaking with friends, family and colleagues in person.

Mr Volkov said society was shifting away from the days when family shaped our expectations, opinions and attitudes.

"What we're seeing now is rather than the family, because we've all got mobile devices, we're placing issues of trust outside these traditional opinion leaders," he said.

"Websites, blogs, consumer driven forums, they're providing a lot of the information to us," he added.

"Too much information can be a bad thing. That's what we're seeing with the information age."