The Optionality Fallacy

We invariably prefer indecision over committing ourselves to a single path because the future, which we dispose of to our liking, appears to us at the same time under a multitude of forms, equally attractive and equally possible.

Harvard University social psychologist Daniel Gilbert gave hundreds of people the opportunity to pick a free poster from a selection of art prints . Then he divided the participants into two groups. The first group was told that they had a month in which they could exchange their poster for any other one; the second group was told that the decision... See more