Choice Motivation Orientation

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Choice motivation orientation refers to the manner in which one evaluates and chooses among a set of options (Schwartz, Ward, Monterosso, Lyubomirsky, White, & Lehman, 2002). Schwartz et al. (2002) distinguished between two types of choice motivation orientations; maximizers are those who tend to evaluate all possible options and choose the “best” one according to their standards; satisficers, on the other hand, are those who hold a relatively lower threshold of acceptability and any option meeting this criteria is deemed acceptable.

According to Schwartz et al., maximizers tend to report less life satisfaction, happiness, optimism, self-esteem, and more regret and depression than satisficers. Furthermore, although maximizers tend to achieve better objective outcomes than satisficers, they are likely to experience these outcomes as worse subjectively. It should be noted that people may fall along a continuum of choice motivation orientation, and whether or not one orientation takes precedence over the other depends on the context in which it is applied.