We often decide on things by process of elimination: it's easier for us to identify what we don't want than what we do. If there are 5 choices available, the e

We often decide on things by process of elimination: it's easier for us to identify what we don't want than what we do. If there are 5 choices available, the effort to decide on one is low as the contrast between choices is high … and holding all options in memory is easy. If there are 1,000 choices, the effort is high and the contrast is low … and you can't hold them all in memory, so there's always _something_ right around the bend that _might_ be the perfect thing.