While having a variety of choices is widely seen as a positive consequence of economic development, what impact does this explosion of choice have on the psyche of the individual, and further, society as a whole?

«America is called the republic of choice,» said Shilpa Madan, assistant professor of marketing in the Pamplin College of Business. «Just go into the supermarket — there are a mind-boggling variety of just cookies.»

In the last three decades, the number of products in the average supermarket increased from an average of nearly 9,000 to almost 47,000, according to the Food Marketing Institute, a trade group.

While having a variety of choices is widely seen as a positive consequence of economic development, what impact does this explosion of choice have on the psyche of the individual, and further, society as a whole?

In her recently published research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, «The salience of choice fuels independence: Implications for self-perception, cognition, and behavior,» Madan illustrates how this salience of choice alone can have a range of powerful psychological effects, including empowerment of the individual.

«Just thinking about making choices makes people more independent and more concerned about their self-interests,» she explained. «It makes people more individualistic.»

Madan notes that these choices don’t need to be life-altering decisions to have an impact.

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