Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Home › Finale! ›

Reply to comment

mkmerrill's picture

Final performance

Submitted by mkmerrill on Thu, 12/11/2008 - 12:59pm.
 The journey of a maximizer and a satisficerIntroduction:Since the basic premise of this class is choice, and how we make them, we have decided to act out our interpretation of the main theory of this class: The paradox of choice.  The main theory behind the paradox of choice is that more choices don’t lead to freedom but to chaos and dissatisfaction.  The paradox arises from the fact that we want complete control and many options to choose from while also wanting our lives to be simple.  By following the journey of Maxine the Maximizer and Sarah the Satisficer we can see the different approaches to make choices.   Cereal: Maxine- After Maxine wakes up she heads to the kitchen to have her breakfast. Being that she has so many choices, she can’t make up her mind so she finally picks, isn’t happy and regrets her decisionSarah-After Sarah wakes up in the morning she heads to the kitchen to have her breakfast. She only has two types of cereal to choose from and she easily picks what she wants to eat and is happyClothes: Maxine-still upset about cereal, heads to her closet to pick out her outfit for the day. She goes through many outfits until she runs out of time and has to throw something on. She is very upset. Sarah-After eating, Sarah heads to her closet to pick out an outfit to wear to the store and being that she only has a few things to choose from she easily decides what to wear.Car:Maxine is still really upset, talks about how unhappy she is with her outfit and on the way to the store she decides to listen to the radio to make her feel better.  She turns the radio on, and decides she sort of likes the song that comes on but that there is probably a better one on, so she changes the radio a few times, then realizes she missed her turn.Sarah- After deciding what to wear she gets in her car turns on radio and is happy with first song that comes on.Store: Maxine- Once Maxine finally gets to the store se goes down the dessert aisle and looks at all the choices and tries to compare. Finally with too many options to choose from she gives up and doesn’t get anything. Sarah-Sarah gets to the store without missing any turns, goes in and picks up two boxes of cookies. Of the two she decides to get one and leaves the store.  Summary:As you can see from our skit being a maximizer, you are always looking for the absolute best option.  This means that maximizers are always reevaluating their decisions and trying to find the absolute best thing, and are never happy with what they have already chosen, because they think they can do better.  A satisficer can make a decision and be happy with it, even if it isn’t the best decision.   The problem with being a maximizer is that it is impossible to consider every option, it’s not just a choice of what kind of cereal to chose, but there are endless options what you could be doing instead of eating the cereal.  As one philosopher said, “should I kill myself or have a cup of coffee”, the choices are endless, so it is impossible to maximize every situation which just ends up driving a maximizer crazy. A maximzer is overwhelmed by their choices and wants to make sure she chooses the absolute best option.  A satisficer can limit her options and be satisfied with good enough, not the best.   For a maximizer, as the number of options increase, the effort required to make a good decision also increases, because they will refuse to disregard any options, in fear that it might be the choice that will maximize the situation.  This is why more choices make experiences less enjoyable.  

So, now it’s your turn, we will present you with two options, and it’s up to you how you make your choice.

Reply

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
2 + 1 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.

Remote Ready Biology Learning Activities

Scanning electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2

Remote Ready Biology Learning Activities has 50 remote-ready activities, which work for either your classroom or remote teaching.

Narrative is determined not by a desire to narrate but by a desire to exchange. (Roland Barthes, S/Z)

What's New? Subscribe to Serendip Studio