A book review in today's Wall Street Journal confirms what parents of toddlers already know: humans often fare better if presented with fewer options, not more. In "Art of Choosing" Columbia Business School professor Sheena Iyengar discusses research that suggests arranged marriages are, ironically, often more loving than love marriages; children play more enthusiastically when forced to choose only one toy from an array of many; and--here's where it gets interesting for marketing types--the more varieties of a product there are on the shelf, the less apt shoppers are to commit to a decision to buy it. Better pull the plug on those line extensions.
