Satisficers and Maximisers

The Times, Saturday 21 February 2004.In the good old days, you could go into your local grocery and have the simple choice of buying either porridge or cornflakes for your morning cereal. With increased prosperity, you have the choice of about 30 or 40 (my estimate) different brands, ranging from the childish up to Organic Muesli with freeze-dried raspberries and no added salt or sugar. There is something about choosing a breakfast cereal in a supermarket that has the power to send me into a deep trance.

I stand oblivious, gazing at the different brands, trying to make up my mind, while other shoppers and their trolleys (=AmE shopping carts) try to politely squeeze past me in the aisle that I am blocking. This mental state seems timeless, but I believe that I have evidence that it might last for up to five minutes in my case.

I had another trance yesterday when I went into Leeds to buy some buttons to replace a couple that had fallen off my trousers. Finding no exact match, I had to find the best alternative in the circumstances. Standing in front of rank upon rank of buttons, some of which might have been more satisfactory than others, I went into a trance. When I eventually came round, I found a middle-aged lady standing next to me, also in a button-trance. The condition is a common one, affecting both male and female customers. The only difference between the male and female lies in the type of product that will induce the trance.
Yesterday's Times explains this phenomenon, by reporting the work of Professor Barry Schwartz, an American psychologist. He has identified the condition as "choice fatigue". He categorises shoppers as either "maximisers" or "satisficers" (correctly spelt with the "c"). The satisficer is satisfied by the first product that approximately meets his/her requirements. Such a shopper will dash around the supermarket, picking up the first pack of potatoes of the required weight, the first pack of sliced white bread, etc. Such a person will be happy, because the potatoes are potatoes, and the bread is bread. That is all the satisficer is interested in.
This behaviour is contrasted with that of the maximise. This type of shopper will feel every tomato to ensure that it is sufficiently firm, and that each individual tomato is the very best of what is left on display. Moving on to the potatoes, he/she will consider in great detail whether the Whites are better than the Reds, whether Maris Piper might be better than Estima, and whether the new potatoes might justify their extra cost. Such a person should avoid at all costs the display of cereals.

The products that the maximiser takes home are objectively better than the corresponding products taken home by the satisficer. However, this is not how the maximiser perceives the situation. Maximisers are perpetually dissatisfied because they always believe that they could have done even better.
The conclusion seems to be that we were happier when we had less choice.

(Question. Is "satisficer" an established word, or was it coined specifically for Prof Schwatz's study? Does the word have derivatives, such as "satisficient"? What is the essential difference between "satisficer" and "satisfier"?)
Richard Chambers Leeds UK.