You’ve often found yourself staring at the screen for minutes trying to open Netflix and choose a TV show or movie. With so many movies and TV shows to choose from, having a hard time making a decision can seem like a paradox. That indecision has even become a key part of a series on the streaming service called The Good Place, but there’s real science behind it all.
This indecision isn’t just about choosing between shows like Making a Murderer and American Vandal. It can also apply to many other things, from choosing your lunch order to determining which words to use in your next sentence.
All this instability appears to be related to the anterior cingulate cortex and striatum, according to a study by researchers at the California Institute of Technology.
As Science Daily reports, the researchers gave subjects groups of 6, 12, or 24 objects. In this example, she presented different jams, as if mimicking their shopping choices, and asked them to choose one from each.
While this was going on, the subjects’ brain activity was monitored and when asked to choose the best among 12 options, the activity was found to be highest.
The anterior cingulate cortex (responsible for cost-benefit analysis) and the striatum (responsible for determining value) saw higher activity when trying to select the “best” from each set of objects, said study co-author Colin Camerer.
According to the research, when asked to choose from 6 products, your brain will say, “It’s not really a choice, how can any of these flag my Netflix cravings. “If you’re not going to bother giving me options, I can do it myself,” she says.
When it came to 12 products, “Wow, nice options. “There is more than enough to meet my needs, I feel like I have enough suggestions to make a real decision without thinking too much about it,” he says.
In 24 options, our brain feels like we’ve gone down a rabbit hole: “There are so many movies! How can I pick one of these when you keep telling me they’re all great, everybody’s talking about them all, and they’re all critically acclaimed!” says.
In short, Camerer states that when the options go above a certain number, it becomes difficult to make a choice. While this number will likely vary from person to person or from topic to topic, it’s clear that having too many choices makes it very difficult to make a decision.
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