LONG ISLAND TOPIC

Long Islanders may soon be able to choose between two cable

TV providers, as Verizon moves to get the equipment in place and the franchise

licenses to allow it to begin competing with Cablevision, perhaps as soon as

2005.

This is good news, isn't it? We all know that choice is good. The providers

will have to compete, improving service and lowering prices. They may carry

somewhat different packages of channels, allowing people with different tastes

an opportunity to choose the provider whose package matches their preferences.

Competition and choice are what the market is all about. How can anyone

imagine that we won't be better off with two providers than we are with just

one?

I can. Americans are awash with choice. In supermarkets and department

stores, in pharmacies and doctors' offices, in selecting retirement investments

and in choosing college courses, Americans are so overloaded with choice that

choosing has become paralyzing rather than liberating.

In recent research with colleagues, I have identified several psychological

factors that may cause choice overload to diminish, or even undermine, our

satisfaction with the decisions we make. As available options increase:

The work involved in gathering the information needed to make a decision

goes up.

People are more likely to regret their decisions.

People are more likely to anticipate regretting their decisions. This

anticipated regret prevents people from actually choosing.

Expectations about how good the decision will be go up, and reality has a

hard time keeping up with these high expectations.

When decisions have disappointing results, people tend to blame themselves

because they feel that with so many options available, unsatisfying results

must be their fault.

Many of us are left thinking: Why even bother making a choice? No matter

what choice we make, a new and better option may be right around the corner. We

anticipate being disappointed before we even make a decision.

The choice overload problem pervades our lives, and the policies of the

Bush administration threaten to make it worse. School choice and choice of

prescription drug plans by senior citizens have already arrived, and choice of

investments for the "privatized" portion of our Social Security accounts may

lie just around the corner.

Proponents of choice in these domains act as if a vast choice among

prescription drug plans, or among investment plans for Social Security funds,

does senior citizens a favor. But perhaps this "favor" is a burden that many or

even most senior citizens would be happy to do without.

Judging from the sparse participation in the Medicare drug plan thus far,

it seems as though most senior citizens would prefer to have their choices in

this complex, confusing and important area winnowed down by experts.

But, you might say, in the case of cable TV, we're talking about only two

options, not 20. How hard can that be? It isn't rocket science, after all. True

enough, but even if the options are few, the very fact that there are options

adds another burden to our lives.

Think about your experience with telephone service. There aren't dozens of

options flooding the market here either. Nonetheless, I get mail a couple of

times a week from the competitors - each offering a variety of different

calling plans, each promising something better than they offered in their last

mailing. Should I stay or switch? Should I change my plan? How closely should I

monitor this ever-changing world of telephone service?

It makes me more than a little nostalgic for the "good old days," when Ma

Bell owned the phones, fixed them (though they never broke) and provided

reliable service. There were no choices, but phone service was something you

could count on. And government regulation protected us from price gouging and

service deterioration.

I'm not saying that competition and choice don't bring benefits. They do.

But they also bring costs. The benefits are obvious, but the costs are subtle.

And it's possible that in the complex, stressful world we live in, one more

choice is the last thing we need.

This is an especially good time of year to reflect on the costs of choice.

Each holiday season, we seem to experience the holidays as more of a burden and

less of a blessing than we did the year before. "What gifts should I buy?"

"What meals should I prepare?" "Which family members and friends should I see

when?"

Choices are everywhere we turn. We might all benefit from a New Year's

resolution to limit our choices to places in our lives where they really

matter. And I don't think cable TV providers is one of those places.