Sheena Iyengar, of Columbia University’s business school, is an expert on ‘choice overload‘. Basically too many options either paralyze the chooser or may mean an unsatisfactory choice is made to get out of the choice dilemma. See The Fewer The Better for more details on that.
She is in the news again with her new book, The Art Of Choosing. One of her findings covers the other end of this scale. No choice at all leads to depression. Belief in the power of choice and a strong desire to expand choices has long been part of the American Dream. Having choices is both valuable and necessary.