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New Thought Beliefs |
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Divinity
Omnipresent God · |
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Universal law |
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Affirmations · Affirmative prayer · Creative visualization · Healing · Personal magnetism · Positive thinking |
Power of Choice is originally introduced by "Science of Mind" New Thought philosopher Frederick Bailes in the 19th century with this quote: "Man’s power of choice enables him to think like an angel or a devil, a king or a slave. Whatever he chooses, mind will create and manifest", the concept of the ability for humans to decide, using free will, the course of their lives, has separated the species from the rest of the animal kingdom.
Choice empowers the human condition—some respected sources contend that choice is more of a curse. Researchers from several prominent universities have discovered that while the human ability to weigh a variety of choices can be advantageous, it can also provide serious liability. Through a series of seven experiments involving over 300 partipants, researchers discovered that if shoppers in a mall were subjected to many decisions, no matter how significant, their ability to do simple math problems was severely compromised.
The concept of the Power of Choice is used extensively by the advertising industry, which seeks to guide consumers to purchase products while conveying them a sense of choice that may be less real than the consumer believes. In the "Illusion of Choice", by Harvard research affiliate A.B. Schmookler, the author points out how market forces shape our destiny, essentially by creating an illusion of the power of choice.
In some cases, the empowerment derived by the ability to weigh choices and pick the best course of action, or solution to a problem are obvious. A current example is the software industry, where solutions are created through the efforts to programmers with no constraints such as materials or laws of physics. In this case, choices abound—some might argue too many choices—and yet the dynamic nature of business in this technological era demands flexibility, and choice. Microsoft has recently used the term "Power of Choice" when describing a number of options a company might take when considering a complex software deployment such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Other sources mention the Power of Choice when discussing latest evolution of CRM known now as "XRM." For these concepts to exist at all, choice must be present.
In XRM software solutions as well as in Madison Avenue style marketing, choice, or at least the belief that choice exists is critical to the success of the endeavor. As pointed out by researchers Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman in "The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice", no matter what the salient facts of a given set of choices, how the problem is presented and "framed" can influence the decision significantly. Thus, the "Power of Choice" may be rendered less powerful than is obvious by presentation, which is something that the marketing industry has known for some time and used to great advantage.
Ultimately, the "Power of Choice", while in theory is an idea as lofty as to set us apart from animals, may in actuality be an illusion manufactured by those who have the most to gain by convincing us otherwise.
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