How Marketers Use Psychology Of Choice To Their Advantage [Infographic]

We’ve all heard the phrase, “We are our choices.” It’s true when you think about it. Every single choice we make from what to eat for lunch to who to spend our lives with impacts our future and our happiness. Although most of us try to make good choices, are we in complete control of the choices we make? It turns out when it comes to purchasing decisions, there is a whole psychology behind how we make choices. As it turns out, savvy marketers know this and are able to use it to their advantage.

Of course we know that the supermarket puts the sugary cereals that kids love at their eye level on the shelves so they will see them and beg their parent’s to buy them, but I’m talking about a psychology that goes much deeper than that. I can’t decide if marketers who use this to their advantage are smart or sneaky. I suppose it’s a little of both.

This infographic called Choice Is An Illusion by BestPsychologyDegrees.org (with reputable sources listed at the bottom) suggests that marketers have done their homework over the years, and they know more about how we make choices than we do.

Just to mention one example, according to their research, although we say we want to know all the options, we really don’t. Too many choices makes us tired and makes the buying decision uncomfortable. Plus, many times we aren’t happy with our choice when it’s over. On the other hand, having less options makes for an easier decision that we are happy with in the long run. Marketers use this to their advantage when selling us everything from mutual funds to new cars to jam at the grocery store. This makes me wonder about other areas of our lives. Do you think there are other choices that we make which we aren’t in complete control over? It’s a bit creepy.