Making decisions when shopping is often a tough call. Even if you’re satisfied with the first dress you try on, would you go on looking for alternatives, comparing styles and prices, until you literally dropped dead?
在购物时做决定往往十分困难。就算对自己试穿的第一件衣服很满意，你会不会继续尝试其他选择，在各种风格与价格之间比来比去，直到“倒地而亡”？

According to a recent Wall Street Journal column, psychology researchers have studied how people make decisions and concluded there are two basic styles. “Maximizers” like to take their time and weigh a wide range of options — sometimes every possible one — before choosing. “Satisficers” (combination of the word “satisfice” and “satisfy”) would rather be fast than thorough.
据《华尔街日报》日前一专栏报道：心理研究人员对人们作出决定的过程进行了研究，并将其总结成两种基本风格：一是愿意花时间对各种选择进行考虑的“最大化者”，二是不求全面只求速度的 “满足者”。英文中，Satisficers (满足者)一词由satisfice（为取得某一目标不惜最低要求）与satisfy（满足）组合而成。

“Maximizers are people who want the best. Satisficers are people who want good enough,” Barry Schwartz, a professor of psychology at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and the author of The Paradox of Choice told The Wall Street Journal.
《选择的悖论》一书的作者、宾夕法尼亚斯州沃斯莫尔学院的心理学教授巴里•施瓦茨在接受《华尔街日报》的采访时说：“‘最大化者’想要最好的，而‘满足者’只要足够好就可以了。”

In a study published in 2006 in the journal Psychological Science, Schwartz and his colleagues followed 548 job-seeking college seniors at 11 schools from October through their graduation in June. They found that the maximizers landed better jobs. Their starting salaries were, on average, 20 percent higher than those of the satisficers, but they felt worse about their jobs.
在2006年发表于《心理科学》杂志的一项研究中，施瓦茨和他的同事们调查了来自11所大学的548名大四学生从当年十月至来年六月间找工作的情况。他们发现“最大化者”能找到更好的工作，起薪普遍比“满足者”高20%，但是他们对工作的满意度却不及“满足者”。

No right choice
没有正确的选择

“The maximizer is kicking himself because he can’t examine every option and at some point had to just pick something,” Schwartz says. “Maximizers make good decisions and end up feeling bad about them. Satisficers make good decisions and end up feeling good.”
施瓦茨说：“‘最大化者’不可能仔细研究所有选项，但却不得不在某个时刻做出决定，因此他们总是后悔自己做出的选择。。因此，他们虽然做出了好的决策，却总是以糟糕的情绪收场。‘满足者’同样也做出了不错的决定，并且感觉不错。”

Satisficers also have high standards, but they are happier than maximizers, he says. Maximizers tend to be more depressed and to report a lower satisfaction with life, his research found.
他还说，“满足者”对事物的标准并不低，而且他们比“最大化者”更开心。他的调查显示，“最大化者”更容易沮丧，对生活的满意度也更低。

Faced with so many choices in our lives, we need to learn how not to waste time and energy on our decision-making, says Jane C. Hu in Slate online magazine.
Jane C. Hu在网络杂志Slate上说，在生活中，面对如此多的选择，我们需要学会如何在做决定上不浪费时间和精力。

First of all, Hu suggests, decrease your range of options. For instance, if you’re picking a restaurant for a lunch meeting, first deciding on a certain part of town or type of cuisine can narrow your options.
Hu提出的建议是，首先，缩小选择范围。比如，为午餐会选择饭店，你可以先确定选择饭店所在的地区或者菜式，以此来缩小选择的范围。

Once you’ve arrived at a decision, stick with it. Just accept that no decision is ever completely perfect, and remind yourself that it is the best you can do at the moment. To limit the number of options you can consider, you can set a self-imposed time limit for decision-making, Hu advises. Say you are buying a new bag, you could spend an amount of time studying features and optimizing price and value — “but if you give yourself only five minutes to make a decision, there are only these bags you can consider. You’ll save time, you’ll be happier with your decision, too”.
一旦做了决定，就坚持下去。没有一个决定是尽善尽美的，提醒自己这是你此时能做的最好选择。Hu还建议到，你也可以对自己做选择的时间做出限定，以减少自己需要考虑的选项。比如说你要买一个新的包包，你可以花相当多的时间来研究包包的特点，寻找最物美价廉的存在， “但是如果你只给自己五分钟的时间做决定，你就能考虑为数不多的几个包包。这样既节省了时间，也让你在做选择时心情更好。”




上篇 【双语】七个让你惊呼“厉害了”的冷知识

下篇 【双语】我结婚了但我并不快乐