剑桥13 谢振礼 雅思范文: 多种选择
Cambridge English 13
IELTS Writing Task 2
Topic:
Some people believe that we have too many choices. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Essay:
Today’s abundance of buying options can stall consumers’ decision-making and even wear away their satisfaction due to fatigue and anxiety. Interestingly enough, consumers have so many options that they are less likely to buy anything at all; and even they do buy, they are less satisfied with their selection. There is a paradox about choice: more freedom is less satisfaction.
More freedom to choose is not always better or easier. Marketers assume that the more choices they offer, the more likely customers will be able to find just the right thing, but that assumption is often far from being true. They assume, for instance, that offering 50 styles of jeans instead of five increases the chances that shoppers will find a pair they really like. Nevertheless, studies show that not only that excessive choice can produce “choice paralysis,” and make consumers feel tired, but also it can reduce consumers’ satisfaction with their decisions, even if they could make good ones. The same studies indicate that increased choice decreases satisfaction with matters as trivial as ice cream flavors and as significant as cars or a house. Eventually, although consumers are given the endless options, they tend to end up going with the more conventional selection simply because it is the easier thing to do.
Moreover, as the number of options increases, the costs, in time and effort, of gathering the information needed to make a good choice also increase, and this is where dissatisfaction kicks in. It is because many options exhaust consumers, and at the same time the level of certainty about their choice decreases. Therefore, psychologically they do not seem to be benefitting from having too many options, and only by eliminating consumer options can they feel less tired and anxious. According to studies again, when consumers have too many choices, they often make bad decisions; and, on the contrary, when they have fewer choices, they often make good decisions. In some cases, too many choices can overwhelm consumers and cause them to not choose at all. To say more is less may also mean that freedom of choice is freedom to decide when they do not want to choose just to avoid dissatisfaction.
In conclusion, the more freedom consumers have to choose, the less satisfaction there is for them. Having too many choices only leads to fatigue and anxiety but not to satisfaction. Paradoxically, too much of anything is just as bad as too less of anything.
