...Article Review Assignment “Too Many Choices: A Problem That Can Paralyze a Customer” MRKT 3013 Dmytro Smirnov University of Central Oklahoma February 19, 2015 Presented to PROFESSOR: GRANT AGUIRRE, J.D., PHD. Too Many Choices: A Problem That Can Paralyze a Customer The salad options at a Woolworths supermarket in Sydney, Australia. Too many choices can trouble consumers. The article’s statement is linking idea of many choices in supermarkets negatively with accumulated marketing experience over the past century. Surely there has been no time in marketing history where the idea of choice has changed more noticeable. A quick reflection on a typical supermarket reveals how marketing has revolutionized this specific store and the world as a whole. Most people commute to buy in the store which suggests a choice of different products and different departments. During the workday, chances are high that the particular customer from a downtown will go down to the nearest supermarket in order to make his or her choice regarding some product. Upon leaving home, family members will be reached through different networks of supermarkets that use the same technologies of marketing. Each of these common occurrences would have been inconceivable at the turn of the 19th century. In the beginning of the article the author attempts to bridge that negative attitude through her personal example with her son who was trying to make a choice at an ice cream store. She wants to describe...
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...Too Many Choices: A Problem That Can Paralyze a Customer The salad options at a Woolworths supermarket in Sydney, Australia. Too many choices can trouble consumers. The article’s statement is linking idea of many choices in supermarkets negatively with accumulated marketing experience over the past century. Surely there has been no time in marketing history where the idea of choice has changed more noticeable. A quick reflection on a typical supermarket reveals how marketing has revolutionized this specific store and the world as a whole. Most people commute to buy in the store which suggests a choice of different products and different departments. During the workday, chances are high that the particular customer from a downtown will go down to the nearest supermarket in order to make his or her choice regarding some product. Upon leaving home, family members will be reached through different networks of supermarkets that use the same technologies of marketing. Each of these common occurrences would have been inconceivable at the turn of the 19th century. In the beginning of the article the author attempts to bridge that negative attitude through her personal example with her son who was trying to make a choice at an ice cream store. She wants to describe a negative influence of many choices and her son's fear that the next option would have been better. Nevertheless, I should admit from my personal experience that when I was at the same age and at the same store,...
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...Processes 90 (2012) 424–427 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Behavioural Processes journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/behavproc Short report Discounting the freedom to choose: Implications for the paradox of choice Derek D. Reed ∗ , Brent A. Kaplan, Adam T. Brewer University of Kansas, United States a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Organisms prefer to make their own choices. However, emerging research from behavioral decision making sciences has demonstrated that there are boundaries to the preference for choice. Specifically, many decision makers find an extensive array of choice options to be aversive, often leading to negative emotional states and poor behavioral outcomes. This study examined the degree to which human participants discounted hypothetical rewards that were (a) delayed, (b) probabilistic, and (c) chosen from a large array of options. The present results suggest that the “paradox of choice” effect may be explained within a discounting model for individual patterns of decision making. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Article history: Received 5 December 2011 Received in revised form 14 February 2012 Accepted 27 March 2012 Keywords: Choice Choice overload Discounting Paradox of choice Search costs As described by Catania, “Whatever else is involved in the concept of freedom, it at least involves the availability of alternatives” (p. 89; 1975). Thus, within a behavioral framework, freedom may be loosely conceptualized...
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...The Cost of “Free” Will in Oedipus Rex (the King) Perhaps the Greek playwright Sophocles never had the concept of “free will” in mind when writing Oedipus Rex, but the play does allow for that interesting paradox we know today as free will. The paradox is: if Oedipus is told by the gods' oracles that he will kill his father and marry his mother, does he have any power to avoid this fate? That's a basic free will question. If Oedipus manages to avoid killing his father and marrying his mother, he will prove the gods wrong, and the oracle prediction turns out to be no prediction at all. How free can we truly be if created by an all knowing being? If God knows, even at the moment before our births, that we are already destined to ascend to Heaven or burn in Hell, can we move through life making truly free decisions? Or are we always to be viewed as puppets of destiny? Was Adam to be blamed for the fall? Or was that actually God's plan? So what is this idea of "original sin?" Shouldn't we celebrate Adam as a hero for freeing man from the state of unawareness that he lived in until he consumed the sacred pomegranate? Recall that the very first line following Adam and Eve's sin is "And they saw that they were naked." This nakedness is not so much of the body (though early Christians loved to view it that way), but rather a sense of viewing, as Joseph Campbell puts it, "duality," the basic difference between man and woman, right and wrong, and, ultimately, man...
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...Religion This is a multiple choice quiz and each item is worth two points for a total possible of 50 points. There is only one correct response for each numbered item, and you should use the Schaefer text as needed to determine the best response. Please clearly identify your choice (you can highlight, underline or mark it in red ). If you have more than one box checked, it will count as incorrect. Review your work prior to submission and make sure you have responded to all questions. Save your work and upload via the Assignments tab by the due date. 1. The largest ancestral group of European Americans is a. French. b. Irish. c. German. d. Norwegian. 2. Which of the following groups has always been considered White by the English? a. Irish. b. Germans. c. Swedes. d. none of these 3. The principle of third-generation interest states that a. the grandchildren of the original immigrants would have an increased interest in their ethnicity. b. the grandchildren of the original immigrants would have a decreased interest in their ethnicity. c. the children of immigrants would have more of an interest in their ethnicity than their children. d. none of these 4. The emphasis on ethnic foods and ethnically associated political issues was called __________ by Herbert Gans. a. symbolic ethnicity. b. ethnic paradox. c. ethnic identity...
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...he Cost of “Free” Will in Oedipus Rex (the King) Perhaps the Greek playwright Sophocles never had the concept of “free will” in mind when writing Oedipus Rex, but the play does allow for that interesting paradox we know today as free will. The paradox is: if Oedipus is told by the gods' oracles that he will kill his father and marry his mother, does he have any power to avoid this fate? That's a basic free will question. If Oedipus manages to avoid killing his father and marrying his mother, he will prove the gods wrong, and the oracle prediction turns out to be no prediction at all. How free can we truly be if created by an all knowing being? If God knows, even at the moment before our births, that we are already destined to ascend to Heaven or burn in Hell, can we move through life making truly free decisions? Or are we always to be viewed as puppets of destiny? Was Adam to be blamed for the fall? Or was that actually God's plan? So what is this idea of "original sin?" Shouldn't we celebrate Adam as a hero for freeing man from the state of unawareness that he lived in until he consumed the sacred pomegranate? Recall that the very first line following Adam and Eve's sin is "And they saw that they were naked." This nakedness is not so much of the body (though early Christians loved to view it that way), but rather a sense of viewing, as Joseph Campbell puts it, "duality," the basic difference between man and woman, right and wrong, and, ultimately, man and...
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... Sayali Bhanage (10) Saona Bhattacharya (12) Shobhit Mishra (36) Introduction In decision theory and economics, ambiguity aversion (also known as uncertainty aversion) describes a preference for known risks over unknown risks. An ambiguity averse individual would rather choose an alternative where the probability distribution of the outcomes is known over one where the probabilities are unknown. This behavior was first introduced through the Ellsberg paradox (people prefer to bet on the outcome of an urn with 50 red and 50 blue balls to on one with 100 total balls but for which the number of blue or red balls is unknown). There are a number of choices involving uncertainty and normally they can be classified in two categories: risky and ambiguous events. Risky events have a certain probability distribution over outcome while ambiguous events have some uncertainty over said probability distribution. The reaction is behavioral and still being formalized. Ambiguity aversion can be used to explain incomplete contracts, volatility in stock markets, and selective abstention in elections (Ghirardato & Marinacci, 2001) The distinction between ambiguity aversion and risk aversion is important but subtle. Risk aversion comes from a situation where a probability can be assigned to each possible...
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...Greatly expands the number and variety of edible substances available – Choose what foods to eat together • Create meals – Use utensils • Have rules and manners – Share food – Have standards about who eats with whom Food and Culture, Kittler & Sucher, 4th Edition, ©2004 Food Habits (Food Culture or Foodways) • Refer to the ways in which humans use food – How it is selected, obtained and distributed – Who prepares, serves and eats it • This is part of what makes us human Food and Culture, Kittler & Sucher, 4th Edition, ©2004 Omnivore’s Paradox • Humans can consume and can digest a wide selection of plants and animals found in the surroundings • The advantage is humans can adapt to nearly all earthly environments • The disadvantage is no single food provides the nutrition necessary for survival Food and Culture, Kittler & Sucher, 4th Edition, ©2004 Omnivore’s Paradox (continued) • Dilemma – Humans must be flexible enough to eat a variety of items to maintain...
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...Introduction to Personality PSY/405 December20, 2010 Abstract There are all types of intelligence that influences many different areas of an individual’s personality in so many different ways. The fact that intelligence can sometimes be considered as a part of personality. These issues of personality have been debated over time. Some of the main points are to bear in mind for that both intelligence and personality is a prominent of individuals many differences. Therefore, personality cannot be so easily defined in individuals. Therefore, personality can be referred as our many attempts to capture and to summarize all individual essences. Personality therefore is known as personality, in which this is the science for describing and for understanding individuals. After saying this, personality is also known as a coring area of studies for different types of psychology. So putting these together within intelligence, these topics of personality can have a constitution for most of the significant areas of individual’s differences within studies. Introduction to Personality There is not a chance for two people to be exactly the same and not even identical twins are the same. Some individuals are anxious, some individuals like the idea of risk-taking; some individuals are phlegmatic, some individuals are very high-strung; some individuals are very confident, some individuals are very shy; some individuals is very quiet, and some individuals is loquacious...
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...Amin Mudarres Slavery and freedom: The American paradox. 9/17/2015 From freedom of speech to bringing a concealed firearm into a church, Americans today are quick to reference their favorite colonial ancestors in defending the rights and freedoms our founding fathers fought for. But what is seldom referenced or quoted is how one fifth of the population at the time of the revolution enjoyed none of those rights. For Edmund Morgan, American slavery and American freedom go hand in hand. He points out how many historians have ignored writing about the early development of American independence simply to avoid the fact that it was almost entirely shaped by the rise of slavery. He challenges that notion and looks further in explaining how such...
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...In Larry Laudan’s “Endanger Thy Neighbor”, Mr. Laudan discusses the risk-responsibility paradox lying within self-protection and benefits. This paradox is evident in every decision we make as human beings, consciously or subconsciously. As human beings, our nature is survival of the fittest. We may be concerned with the well-being of others, but deep down the first person we think about in those types of situations are ourselves. This mode of decision making is what I believe creates the risk-responsibility scenario and makes it present in everyday life. Laudan utilizes several examples to show his belief that whenever you make a decision that increases your safety or betters your quality of life in some sort way, it will most likely result in a negative effect on the people around you. For example, purchasing a burglary system would reduce your chances of getting robbed but would increase your neighbors chances of being burglarized. And purchasing a larger vehicle, like an SUV, would increase your chances to survive a crash but would put others who are involved in the accident at higher risk of severe injury or even death. In response to this he then goes on to show instances were decision making that is beneficial for you can also be harmful at the same time. For example, purchasing a car with fully equipped safety precautions, or buying a home security system. Lauden goes on to explain that people become more careless in these types of circumstances. The people with safer...
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...Best Practice BY BOB FRISCH When Teams Can’t Decide Are stalemates on your leadership team making you a dictator by default? Stop blaming your people – start fixing the process. THE EXECUTIVE TEAM is deliberating about a critical strategic choice, but no matter how much time and effort the team members expend, they cannot reach a satisfactory decision. Then comes that uncomfortable moment when all eyes turn to the CEO. The team waits for the boss to make the final call, yet when it’s made, few people like the decision. Blame, though unspoken, is plentiful. The CEO blames the executives for indecisiveness; they resent the CEO for acting like a dictator. If this sounds familiar, you’ve experienced what I call the dictator-by-default syndrome. For decades this dynamic has been diagnosed as a problem of leadership or teamwork or both. To combat it, companies use team-building and communications exercises that teach executives how to have assertive conversations, give and receive feedback, and establish mutual trust. In doing so, they miss the real problem, which lies not with the people but with the process. This sort of impasse is inherent in the act of arriving at a collective preference on the basis of individual preferences. Once leadership teams understand that voting-system mathematics are the culprit, they can stop wasting time on irrelevant psychological exercises and instead adopt practical measures designed to break the impasse. These measures, proven effective in...
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...Critique of The Abilene Paradox: The Management Of Agreement Section (3) Article (7) By ROHINI GANDHOTRA Dr. Frear MBA 500: Business and Leadership January 31, 2009 BIOGRAPHY Jerry B. Harvey, a management expert and pioneer of The Abilene Paradox is a Professor of Management at The George Washington University. During his career, he has served as a consultant to a wide variety of industrial, governmental, religious, military, educational, and voluntary organizations. He is the author of approximately fifty professional articles and has written two books: The Abilene Paradox and Other Meditations on Management and How Come Every Time I Get stabbed in the Back, My Fingerprints Are on the Knife? He is also featured in several videos focusing on organizational behavior including, "The Asoh Defense," "The Gunsmoke Phenomenon," and "The Abilene Paradox". In addition, he has published articles such as, "It's Not My Dog," "Eichmann in the Boardroom," "Organizations as Phrog Farms," "Interrupted Prayers and Organizational Un*Learning." Many years ago Professor Jerry B. Harvey discovered that the fundamental problem of contemporary organizations is the inability to cope with agreement—not conflict. He finds that most agreement in organizations is actually false consensus. It occurs because many people feel they might be isolated, censured or ridiculed if they voice objections. This often leads groups to act on inappropriate goals and is a setup for organizational...
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...Powerscore CR Bible Notes: Chapter 2: The Basics of Critical Reasoning -Read the information in the given order. Read the stimulus first, then question stem and then the answer choices. Why? Sometimes reading a question stem first undermines a student’s ability to fully comprehend the stimulus especially on tougher questions. It often leads to time waste because students read the stem first then the stimulus and then back to the stem. Leads to confusions or distractions because sometimes the question stem refers to information in the stimulus which may throw you off. Stimuli with two questions will once again lead to time waste because you are not re-reading one question but two questions this time! Reading the stimulus sometimes enable readers to predict the question stem. For example, “Resolve the Paradox” type of CR questions usually contain an obvious paradox or discrepancy. However, when you read the question stem first, you are not gaining or saving time in anyway. Premises give the reasons why a conclusion should be accepted. Always ask yourself “What info is the author using to convince me? Why should I believe this argument or what is the evidence behind this conclusion?” Premise Indicators: because, since, for, for example, for the reason that, in that, given that, as indicated by, due to, owing to, this can be seen from, we know this by. Conclusion Indicators: thus, therefore, hence, consequently, as a result, so, accordingly, clearly, must...
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...Assignment of General Management on the Abilene Paradox: The Management of Agreement Joseph NGENZI MPAM/3020/11 This Term Paper is Submitted in partial fulfillment of UNIT MBA 603 grades of the School of Business and Public Management for the award of Master of Public Administration and Management. Mt. Kenya University July, 2011 INTRODUCTION Four adults are sitting on a porch in 104-degree heat in the small town of Coleman, Texas, some 53 miles from Abilene. They are engaging in as little motion as possible, drinking lemonade, watching the fan spin lazily, and occasionally playing the odd game of dominoes. The characters are a married couple and the wife’s parents. At some point, the wife’s father suggests they drive to Abilene to eat at a cafeteria there. The son in-law thinks this is a crazy idea but doesn’t see any need to upset the apple cart, so he goes along with it, as do the two women. They get in their unaired-conditioned Buick and drive through a dust storm to Abilene. They eat a mediocre lunch at the cafeteria and return to Coleman exhausted, hot, and generally unhappy with the experience. It is not until they return home that it is revealed that none of them really wanted to go to Abilene–they were just going along because they thought the others were eager to go. Naturally, everyone sees this miss in communication as someone else’s problem. Dr. Harvey used this wonderfully simple parable to illustrate what he believes is a major symptom of organizational...
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