14 DAY TRIAL // A team of investigators from the University of Bristol announce the conclusions of a new study they conducted on the general British population. The scientists say that their survey found that the country is virtually crippled by the vast number of choice its people are confronted with daily. The team believes that having too many options may in fact be detrimental to both the economy and the way people act. For instance, they add, it could be that this approach to conducting business has produced one of the first generations of British citizens incapable of making decisions.
The survey was conducted on more than 6,000 citizens, so the study sample can be considered to be representative for the entire population of the United Kingdom. The UB team found that people are faced with way too much information and choice, and explain that this is not always a good thing. As evidenced in previous studies, people who have many options to choose from tend to take longer to make a decision, and to feel more insecure about their decision once it's made. This happens because it's very easy for them to doubt selecting the right product, given the multitude of other similar product available.
The Bristol group says that the average UK citizen is part of “a group of individuals suffering high levels of confusion whilst displaying an inability to be decisive, leading in some cases to depression.” These people have been termed the “Indeciders,” for obvious reasons. The statistics presented by the team show that a whopping 47 percent of the UK population admits to experiencing the inability to make proper decisions. Additionally, it was proven that 65 percent of people struggle with decisions pertaining to politics, whereas 69 percent could not make sense of interest rates, and other bank-related issues.
The experts formed a number of focus groups, which included among others young adult males, mothers, seniors, and young adult women. The percentages held throughout, the scientists explain. “With a constant stream of new media, daily technological advancements and aggressive multimedia advertising, it’s no wonder that over half of Britain thinks life is more confusing for them than it is for their parents. We really are becoming a nation of ‘indeciders’,” says UB Sociology department professor Harriet Bradley.