full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sheena Iyengar: How to make choosing easier

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So I one day dceided to pay a visit to the manager, and I asked the manager, "Is this model of orinffeg people all this choice really working?" And he peitond to the busloads of tourists that would show up eaedvyry, with cameras ready usually. We decided to do a little experiment, and we picked jam for our experiment. Here's their jam aisle. They had 348 different kinds of jam. We set up a little tasting botoh right near the entrance of the store. We there put out six different flavors of jam or 24 different frvloas of jam, and we loeokd at two things: First, in which case were people more likely to stop, sample some jam? More people stopped when there were 24, about 60 percent, than when there were six, about 40 percent. The next thing we looked at is in which case were people more likely to buy a jar of jam. Now we see the opposite effect. Of the people who stopped when there were 24, only three percent of them actually bought a jar of jam. Of the plpeoe who soptped when there were six, well now we saw that 30 percent of them actually bought a jar of jam. Now if you do the math, people were at least six times more likely to buy a jar of jam if they encountered six than if they encountered 24.

Open Cloze


So I one day _______ to pay a visit to the manager, and I asked the manager, "Is this model of ________ people all this choice really working?" And he _______ to the busloads of tourists that would show up ________, with cameras ready usually. We decided to do a little experiment, and we picked jam for our experiment. Here's their jam aisle. They had 348 different kinds of jam. We set up a little tasting _____ right near the entrance of the store. We there put out six different flavors of jam or 24 different _______ of jam, and we ______ at two things: First, in which case were people more likely to stop, sample some jam? More people stopped when there were 24, about 60 percent, than when there were six, about 40 percent. The next thing we looked at is in which case were people more likely to buy a jar of jam. Now we see the opposite effect. Of the people who stopped when there were 24, only three percent of them actually bought a jar of jam. Of the ______ who _______ when there were six, well now we saw that 30 percent of them actually bought a jar of jam. Now if you do the math, people were at least six times more likely to buy a jar of jam if they encountered six than if they encountered 24.

Solution


  1. people
  2. offering
  3. flavors
  4. decided
  5. looked
  6. pointed
  7. booth
  8. stopped
  9. everyday

Original Text


So I one day decided to pay a visit to the manager, and I asked the manager, "Is this model of offering people all this choice really working?" And he pointed to the busloads of tourists that would show up everyday, with cameras ready usually. We decided to do a little experiment, and we picked jam for our experiment. Here's their jam aisle. They had 348 different kinds of jam. We set up a little tasting booth right near the entrance of the store. We there put out six different flavors of jam or 24 different flavors of jam, and we looked at two things: First, in which case were people more likely to stop, sample some jam? More people stopped when there were 24, about 60 percent, than when there were six, about 40 percent. The next thing we looked at is in which case were people more likely to buy a jar of jam. Now we see the opposite effect. Of the people who stopped when there were 24, only three percent of them actually bought a jar of jam. Of the people who stopped when there were six, well now we saw that 30 percent of them actually bought a jar of jam. Now if you do the math, people were at least six times more likely to buy a jar of jam if they encountered six than if they encountered 24.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
choice overload 5
offering people 3
overload problem 2
financial savings 2
retirement savings 2
fund offerings 2
participation rates 2
negative consequences 2
choosing experience 2
today offers 2
high choice 2
default button 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
choice overload problem 2

Important Words


  1. aisle
  2. asked
  3. booth
  4. bought
  5. busloads
  6. buy
  7. cameras
  8. case
  9. choice
  10. day
  11. decided
  12. effect
  13. encountered
  14. entrance
  15. everyday
  16. experiment
  17. flavors
  18. jam
  19. jar
  20. kinds
  21. looked
  22. manager
  23. math
  24. model
  25. offering
  26. pay
  27. people
  28. percent
  29. picked
  30. pointed
  31. put
  32. ready
  33. sample
  34. set
  35. show
  36. stop
  37. stopped
  38. store
  39. tasting
  40. times
  41. tourists
  42. visit
  43. working