Three: The Perfect Number of Choices

Early in my adult life, John ran across an article that stated that three choices was the perfect number to give someone. I was fascinated with this concept. Over the years, it has truly played out to be true.

What is the basic logic behind this?  People like choices, but not too many choices.  

Too many choices cause confusion.  Which should I choose?  What if I choose incorrectly? How do I compare all these options?  My brain can't comprehend how to make a decision with so much input.

Only two choices, your mind will worry that you chose wrong and should have picked the other one. 

Three seems to be the perfect number. To use Goldilocks... one is too hard and one is too soft, so the last choice is just right.  In other words, your brain can do a process of elimination, easily deciding that two options are not right which leaves the third option as the perfect answer.  No need to second guess the choice, because you used a process of elimination to come to a decision your mind can live with.

Three being the magic number seemed way too easy.  John found this article before the internet, so I had to do a little private testing of my own to see if this really was true.  I would give people two options and a lot of times they would veto both and ask for other options.  I would give them four or more and they would ask me to whittle down the choices.  It became apparent that the power of three was a real thing. In today's world, if you google the power of three you can fall down a rabbit hole.  Writers, marketers, comedians, business strategist, etc. have posts and websites dedicated to this concept.

You can use this for yourself also. Not sure what to have for dinner?  Give yourself three choices and see how fast your mind can delete two.  Not sure what to wear to work?  Pull three shirts and suddenly, you know exact what would work best that morning.  Not sure which bird feeder you want from amazon, put three of them in your cart and suddenly, you can delete two pretty easily.  

I am constantly shocked how many times this little trick of three works.  Every now and then, for the fun of it, I give people four to five choices and watch their brain work.  Then, I offer to eliminate one or more to get them to three and suddenly, they can make a choice.  

So, save yourself time and if someone asks you for options, give them three.  Don't expend any extra energy to come up with more options. They will be happiest choosing between three things and your job will be done.