Unbelievable facts
“Speed dating” puts a person before choosing from so many options that, as a rule, people prefer either not to make a choice at all or choose the wrong person.
The results of a new study show that both humans and primates, faced with such a huge variety of choices, lose all the skills to make the right decision. The phenomenon helps explain why a restaurant's huge menu, lengthy retail offerings, and other similar situations are causing confusion in the human brain.
“Our ancestors lived in relatively small and friendly communities, so they probably never faced the level of diversity in choices that modern humans face,” says study co-author Alison Lenton. “Thus, our minds are adapted to make decisions amid the level of diversity that we regularly encounter.”
Lenton, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Edinburgh, and her colleague Marco Francesconi analyzed the decisions made by 1,868 women and 1,870 men at 84 parties “quick acquaintances”. When a person registered to attend one of these parties, they indicated their age, weight, height, level of education, religion, occupation, and bad habits.
At each party, participants met with members of the opposite sex on mini-dates that lasted 3-5 minutes. Within 48 hours, participants reported their choices. Although men were much more likely to choose a particular woman, the choice became more difficult to make when the number of potential partners increased. Some participants made no choice at all, and those who did often chose the “wrong” partner.
Many people left “quick dating” parties the same way they came: alone. “We think this is due to how people tend to judge things, so we tend to make relative rather than absolute judgments,” explains Lenton. “We're analyzing the person we see, rather than creating an abstract ideal, so the longer a date lasts, the more opportunities we have to analyze.”
Previous studies have shown that some animals are also unable to make good choices, or they don't make them at all when faced with too much variety. This also helps explain failures in many social situations, such as the inability to choose a home after watching dozens.
“Overall, too much variety causes people to delay making a decision,” says Lenton. “This may be one of the reasons why people today marry at a later age, especially in large cities where there are presumably more options for potential partners.”
“As for those who like such “quick acquaintances”, they can be advised to clearly formulate their preferences before starting a party, and evaluate a person based on this, but not try compare potential partners with each other. Therefore, try to prioritize the questions that should be asked, but the questions should be chosen in such a way that the person does not have to think twice when answering them.”