Maximizing vs satisficing
In short
When you choose something, you can look for the best possible option, or you can stop at the first one that is good enough. Herbert Simon, who worked across economics and psychology, called the second strategy satisficing. Barry Schwartz and his colleagues later showed that people differ in which strategy they prefer. On average, those who maximize report less satisfaction and more regret. In one study, they landed higher salaries in their first job but were less happy with it.
What it says
Simon’s idea. In 1956, Simon wrote that organisms adapt well enough to “satisfice”; they do not, in general, “optimize”. The reason: no one has the senses or the wits to find an “optimal” path among all the possibilities. Instead, Simon proposes a choice mechanism that follows a “satisficing” path, one that reaches a specified level for each need.
From strategy to trait. Schwartz et al. (2002) started from Simon but asked something else: do people differ in how much they want to maximize? The authors put the difference this way: maximizers want the best possible result, satisficers want a result good enough to meet some criterion. They built a questionnaire, the Maximization Scale, and gave it to seven samples, 1,747 participants in total (students and community adults).
What they found, according to the article:
- High maximization scores went with less happiness, optimism, self-esteem and life satisfaction, and with more regret, perfectionism and depressive symptoms.
- Maximizers were less satisfied with their purchasing decisions and compared themselves with others more often.
- In two experiments, they were more affected by comparison with someone doing better and more sensitive to regret in a bargaining game.
Better objectively, worse subjectively. Iyengar, Wells and Schwartz (2006) followed 548 final-year students from 11 universities through their search for a first job. They measured maximizing tendency at the start, in the fall, and came back with questionnaires in February and May. Students with a strong maximizing tendency landed starting salaries 20% higher: $44,515 on average, against $37,085 for the others. Yet they were less satisfied with the job they took and felt worse throughout the search (more stressed, more overwhelmed, more depressed). The authors link the gap to two things: maximizers relied more on external sources (rankings, other people’s opinions) and thought more often about the options they did not choose.
Example
The example Iyengar et al. (2006) use: you’re looking for something to watch on TV, with 400 channels to choose from. The maximizer flips through every channel to be sure of picking the best show. The satisficer stops at the first one that seems good enough.
An example built for this text: you’re shopping for a washing machine. The maximizing version: you compare every model in three shops, read dozens of reviews, put the decision off for two weeks and, after buying, wonder whether the model you passed over was better. The satisficing version: you set three criteria in advance (capacity, energy use, maximum price) and buy the first model that meets all of them.
How to apply it
The suggestions below extrapolate from the studies cited, which are correlational or run in the lab. They did not test this advice.
- Set your bar before you search. This is how Schwartz et al. (2002) describe Simon’s strategy: all you need is a scale for judging options and a threshold of acceptability, and the first option that clears it is the one you choose. Write down your criteria before you start looking, so you don’t raise them as you go.
- Choose where maximizing is worth it. Not every decision deserves the effort. Iyengar et al. (2006) found that maximizing went with higher salaries. For big decisions that are hard to undo, extra searching may pay off. For small ones that are easy to change, probably not.
- Once you’ve chosen, stop comparing. Maximizers thought more often about the options they turned down, and that went with lower satisfaction (Iyengar et al., 2006). Avoid carrying on the search after the decision.
- Watch out for rankings and for what others choose. The same authors found that maximizers relied more on external sources. Ask yourself whether your criteria are really yours.
Limits and nuances
- The data are mostly correlational. Schwartz et al. (2002) state explicitly that their first study says nothing about the direction of causality. They assume that maximizing leads to unhappiness, but they also acknowledge the reverse: unhappy people might be disappointed with their choices and keep trying to choose “better”.
- It is unclear what the questionnaires measure. Cheek and Schwartz (2016) note that the 2002 scale has been criticized and that almost a dozen other scales have appeared, with contradictory results. They propose a two-part definition: the goal of choosing the best option and the strategy of searching through alternatives. In their model, decision difficulty and regret are causes or outcomes of maximizing, not part of it. This matters because some older scales measured them together.
- The effect depends on context. The meta-analysis by Belli et al. (2022), covering 683 effects from 108 papers and 47,245 respondents, looked for the conditions under which the link between maximizing and wellbeing is weaker or stronger. Their hypotheses about focusing on the process of choosing rather than the outcome were supported. Their hypotheses about simpler choices were only partly supported.
- The higher salary doesn’t mean maximizing caused it. Iyengar et al. (2006) found more maximizers at top-ranked universities, so part of the gap may come from other advantages. The authors note, however, that maximizing was not related to GPA, another marker of academic performance. The study cannot rule out every other explanation.
- Satisficing does not mean low standards. The bar can be high. The difference is that, once the bar is cleared, the search stops.
Sources
- Herbert A. Simon (1956). Rational choice and the structure of the environment
- Barry Schwartz, Andrew Ward, John Monterosso, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Katherine White, Darrin R. Lehman (2002). Maximizing Versus Satisficing: Happiness Is a Matter of Choice
- Sheena S. Iyengar, Rachael E. Wells, Barry Schwartz (2006). Doing Better but Feeling Worse: Looking for the “Best” Job Undermines Satisfaction
- Nathan N. Cheek, Barry Schwartz (2016). On the meaning and measurement of maximization
- Alex Belli, François A. Carrillat, Natalina Zlatevska, Elizabeth Cowley (2022). The wellbeing implications of maximizing: A conceptual framework and meta-analysis
See also: Diminishing returns, Opportunity cost, Pareto principle