Question

 How does variety lead to paralysis of action?

Answer 1

Paralysis of action means a behaviour or process wherein the overanalyzing of the decisions or actions could lead to reaching at no final decision.

Whenever an individual has a lot of choices or variety to choose from, there would be alternatives and trade offs. In case of many variants, it becomes extremely difficult to decide what to choose and what to give up ie the opportunity cost.

Another factor could also be that after a choice is being done with, individuals may end up comparing the chosen option with the ones not chosen, comparing the unneccesary issues and this might lead to not enjoying the decision taken by the individual.

When there is abundance in choices, people would tend to spend more time in learning about the pros and cons of each of the option , which would reduce the time they have for the final decision. This may lead to not taking the decision at all or postponding it to a later time, both of which signify that there is paralysis of action.

Hence when an individual has less choices, it is easier to compare and there is sufficient time to take decision without overanalysing the situation which might lead to making no decision at all.