{"id":282,"date":"2026-01-11T16:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T16:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/mfm2g24\/?page_id=282"},"modified":"2026-01-11T16:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T16:52:15","slug":"the-tyranny-of-choice","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/mfm2g24\/the-tyranny-of-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tyranny of Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I read a bit of this book for my research as I was considering the possibility of choice making when doing the groceries, such as picking the highest value product. For example, making sure you check if the tomatoes are rotten in any way, or if a pasta bag is slightly open, if there\u2019s any broken eggs in the egg container, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"654\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/mfm2g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/01\/image-20.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-285\" style=\"width:217px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/mfm2g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/01\/image-20.png 654w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/mfm2g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/01\/image-20-196x300.png 196w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 654px) 100vw, 654px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>So here are the notes I took off the book:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The author of the book begins the first chapter by talking about one time she went to buy cheese to bring to some sort of get together, and she struggles once she gets there because she realises she doesn\u2019t know what kind of cheese variety people were thinking to eat, so she just got a bunch of them after a while of pondering. She says the reason this experience was so anxiety inducing was because she was questioning her own desire in the eyes of others and how others would judge the choice. Buying the most advertised things take away the anxiety that comes from the uncertainty of discovering something new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A friend of the author says he gets anxious when he chooses wine at restaurants, afraid that his choice will be ridiculed, so he just orders an expensive one and insists on paying for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When people are asked about what makes choice traumatic, they say this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>They want to make the ideal choice<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They question what others will think about their choices and what others would choose in their place<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They wonder if certain choices like their picking an electricity provider is one they should be making themselves<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Evaluation based on performance is very prevalent in today\u2019s employment culture. In British Universities, teachers spend half their time writing reports on students, programmes, or colleagues. Employees are evaluated by their boss and then asked to evaluate themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The constant process of evaluation and monitoring is a crucial element of industrial manufacture, which became internalised as a way of controlling our behaviour. Since the accuracy of one\u2019s own evaluations is put to the test and measured against that of a manager or superior, a great measure for anxiety is produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(When reading this part, I thought that perhaps this issue is even greater in people with low self-esteem, since they\u2019re likely to see people around them as being better performing than them already, leading to the feeling of constant evaluation.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The book carried on saying that we as humans are urged to see our whole lives as investments, for instance the time and love given to your kids is a choice that will lead to them eventually fulfilling our own unfulfilled dreams and financially support you in old age. Today\u2019s advice culture depicts emotions as elements of life that can be mastered. So, the idea of choice became radicalised and everything in life became a matter of decisions that need to be made carefully to achieve the ideal perception of happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emotion self-image<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The idea that choice penetrated our perception of emotions, making us think that we have the choice to have them or not. When trying to improve on anger, self-help books will say stuff like <em>go from anger to forgiveness<\/em>, and especially to <em>realise that anger is a choice<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Introducing choice in this area will only lead to guilt and anxiety, and anger at the self for not being able to overcome the emotions even with the step-by-step guides. They act like anger is something that needs to be gotten rid of, but it is a necessary emotion that often leads to social change. Getting rid of it is like another form of control to pacify people into ignoring social problems and focused on their own individual problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When individuals are made to think that they\u2019re the masters of their own destiny, and when positive thinking is given as the fix for their suffering, a result of social injustice, their social critique will be replaced by self-critique steadily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The book gives an example of a girl from extreme makeover, who had been teased or bullied for her appearance, so she wanted a new body and face to show up at a class reunion as a solution for her trauma and resentment. They wan to look like someone else, not just to look different, but to have people see them as different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Psychoanalysts hear demands for quick dramatic chance, people say \u2018I want to re-invent myself\u2019 every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem with creating an identity is that one won\u2019t be able to find solace in a title before parts they\u2019re supressing reveal themselves, because identities cannot be defined by external titles. One can\u2019t \u201cbecome themselves\u201d by living by a title or copying someone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Giving away freedom of choice<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Patients will be given different treatment options to choose as a form of Informed Consent, which often can come off as doctors using it as a way to avoid responsibility if something does go wrong. Freedom of choice seems appealing, but when things get hard, people will hope that someone else with the knowledge will just make the decision for them, especially since a wrong choice could cost the patient\u2019s own life, and that\u2019s a lot of responsibility and stress to put on someone that\u2019s already ill, stress and anxiety that can often make their conditions worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How will I make use of this research?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The game I\u2019m making is based off general personal experience, I really hate how much freedom of choice I have sometimes and how if I make the wrong choice the consequences are often undoable, so sometimes I just wish that the choices are confirmed to not go anywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I do food shopping, I often just walk through and pick the first product off the shelf that I need, not checking its\u2019 conditions because I\u2019m afraid of being judged for my indecisiveness, but sometimes it costs me going home with low quality products that are almost inedible to my standards. It\u2019s why you should always double check what you pick to pick the highest value produce. I also often just leave whatever I want to get because I stood pondering for way too long, then I regret it when I get home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What I\u2019m considering for my game:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The player will not have much time to choose an item before having to leave and possibly go back later in case something was wrong to represent the fear of judgement.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I\u2019m also thinking that the NPCs would say something mean in regard to what they\u2019re staring at for a certain amount of time.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The main character dresses a particular way to appear like everyone else, abandoning individuality in the process, all to avoid being judged for leaving the house a particular way.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The main character does her makeup to make herself look \u201cprettier\u201d by her own standards and generally spends some time getting ready to leave.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Reference:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Salecl, R. (2011). <em>The tyranny of choice<\/em>. London: Profile, pp.14\u201358.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I read a bit of this book for my research as I was considering the possibility of choice making when doing the groceries, such as picking the highest value product. For example, making sure you check if the tomatoes are rotten in any way, or if a pasta bag is slightly open, if there\u2019s any [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-282","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/mfm2g24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/mfm2g24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/mfm2g24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/mfm2g24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/mfm2g24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/mfm2g24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/mfm2g24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/282\/revisions\/286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/mfm2g24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}