Are You a Maximizer or a Satisficer?

Adventure is a State of Mind

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Everyday we are faced with a multitude of choices, starting with what we are going to wear and what we want to eat for breakfast and ending with what time we want to go to bed.

Planning a travel adventure is no different. One of the reasons why many people pay for a cruise or an organized tour is to minimize the decisions they have to make, although even then there are still choices to make. You have to decide which tour company you want to go with, and there are often a variety of excursions you can choose to add to your overall tour experience.

The upside of independent travel is that we have the flexibility to do the things we want to do. Are you into genealogy? If so, you can travel to the tiny village where your great-grandfather was born and visit the local cemetery where his parents were buried. Are you into trying new, local foods? If you’re not part of an organized tour group, you can stop and sample the offerings of as many street vendors as you like. Or you can eat at a tiny cafe with only a few tables and far from the well-touristed parts of town.

The downside of independent travel is that there are many more decisions we need to make. Early in the planning process, we make decisions about the general structure of the trip, such as choosing the places we want to visit and where we want to stay. During our adventures, we choose our daily activities and plan how to travel to them. This can add a layer of stress to travel, but knowing your style of decision making, as well as understanding and considering alternative decision-making styles, can help the entire process go more smoothly.

Styles of Decision Making

We all tend toward one of two styles of decision making–maximizers or satisficers.

Maximizers will put a great deal of effort into researching a decision in an attempt to make the very best choice possible.

Satisficers tend to have less less lofty goals and take more of a “good enough” approach.

Each style has pros and cons, and depending on the type of decision you are making, each can be the most optimal approach at different times. Understanding your general tendency can help you to decide when that approach is best and when an alternative decision-making strategy might be more beneficial.

Maximizers

Do you label yourself as a perfectionist? If so, there is a good chance you’re a maximizer when it comes to making decisions. Maximizers often have high expectations for themselves, and this includes putting pressure on themselves to make the best decision now that will also have the best overall outcome in the future.

When it comes to travel, maximizers are the sort of people who will spend hours researching hotels to determine not only which has the best reviews but also is the best bargain and in the best location. When maximizers make a decision, you can usually assume that it is well-informed. They can be a great resource for you when you want to ask for a friend’s opinion about someplace you’re considering visiting!

Given how much effort goes into their decision-making process, you might assume being a maximizer is the way to go when it comes to making travel plans. Unfortunately, there are a number of downsides to being a maximizer. Often they can put so much pressure on themselves to make the perfect decision that they are afraid of making a mistake and never actually make a choice and take the trip. They also can experience a very high level of anxiety about committing to their decisions and experience frequent “buyers remorse” by second guessing their decisions after they’ve made them.

In general, despite the effort they put into making the optimal choice, maximizers tend to doubt themselves and be less happy with their decisions after they make them. It’s not surprising that research has found that maximizers tend to experience less overall life satisfaction than satisficers.

Satisficers

Satisficers tend to make decisions much more quickly than maximizers. Instead of putting a great deal of research into making the perfect choice, they often will do research until they find a “good enough” option. They often have fewer criteria for their decision-making process — for example, they might look for a hotel based on a good location but worry less about the reviews or finding the best bargain.

Satisficers also are more likely to talk about going with their gut when making a decision, such as observing what someone in a restaurant is eating and asking for that dish rather than reading every item on the menu. They will ask the opinion of someone and follow that recommendation without putting significant research into it. Perhaps one of the biggest overall benefits to being a satisficer is they tend to be happier with their decisions after the fact than are maximizers, despite having put less effort into finding the optimal choice.

So does that mean that we should all strive to be satisficers? Certainly in some circumstances, but it’s actually a little more nuanced than that.

Why not seize the pleasure at once? — How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!

Jane Austen

The Best Decision-Making Style

Is there an optimal way to sort through choices and make decisions? In general, the research indicates maximizers do better at making decisions but are not as happy with their results as are satisficers. There are times when the decision-making stakes are high, such as choosing which job offer to accept or buying an expensive house. In those circumstances, there are definite benefits to using a maximizer approach in making your decision. For example, maximizers tend to find jobs that make more than the jobs found by satisficers. Unfortunately, the same research showed that they also tend to be less happy with those job choices.

In summary, the research is clear that satisficers are happier with their decisions and with their lives in general. That suggests that the majority of the time, your best option is being a satisficer. There are times, however, when the cost of making a mistake is so high that you may want to spend more time researching your options and taking a maximizer approach.

Keep in mind that the maximizer approach will work best if you don’t mind investing your time into the research and if you also recognize that all of that research will not necessarily result in you being happier with the decision than you would be had you taken a satisficer approach.

The Golden Mean

As with many things in life, the middle road may be the best option–being a satisficer for most decisions will generally lead to more happiness and life satisfaction. This is especially true when the price of making a mistake is not astronomical, which luckily is the situation with most travel decisions. When the cost of making a mistake is potentially expensive or painful, however, being a maximizer may result in a better decision. After the decision is made, returning to a satisficer attitude rather than second guessing the choice will likely result in greater happiness about the decision.

Choosing the middle road with travel planning could mean putting the majority of your effort into researching only the most expensive parts of the trip, such as airline tickets. After the tickets are bought, the satisficer approach of no longer worrying about the decision (even if you hear that airline prices have dropped since you purchased your tickets) is the way to remain satisfied with your choice.

Another middle road option is a hybrid approach. For example, some research is helpful, especially if you are traveling to a place where you have never been. But quickly eliminating choices, such as deciding to focus your hotel search in just one neighborhood of a city or limiting it to a price range (without trying to find the ultimate bargain), can help to modify maximizer tendencies. Similarly, reading a guidebook about an area or reading a few reviews can help a satisficer to be less impulsive and fine tune their gut instincts.

What I Do

Personally, I tend to take a maximizer approach early on and do most of my research as I start planning a trip. That’s when I dive in deep with the internet searches and read the guidebooks about the place I want to go. This helps to familiarize me with the options and average costs of lodging and activities. I also share this information with my travel companions. When it comes time to make the actual decisions, however, I often have much more of a satisficer approach — I’m happy to go along with what my travel companions want to do, even if it might not be the most optimal choice for some reason. If the individuals I’m traveling with don’t have a strong opinion, then I’m often swayed by the “good enough” aspects of a choice.

As an example, once when we were trying to decide on an apartment in a Paris, the early research went into deciding on the arrondissement (neighborhood) where we wanted to stay. After that, the decision as to which apartment we wanted to rent was based mostly on the photos we liked best. Could we have been maximizers and spent more time to find the absolute best bargain in that area? Of course. Would we have been happier with that decision? I strongly doubt it.

Considering the Cost

Another helpful guideline as to whether to be a maximizer or a satisficer is to conduct an informal cost-benefit analysis of the the decision you are making. This means literally considering the cost of the choice. For example, which flight to take is obviously going to cost you more than what to eat for lunch.

If you are considering something expensive, doing more research is likely to make the effort more worthwhile. On the other hand, spending a great deal of your time researching something that will only cost you a few dollars, even if you decide it was a bad decision and a waste of money, is likely not worth your time and effort.

And ultimately, that’s what it all comes down to — when you’re making decisions about your travel adventures (and your life), what price are you willing to pay in regards to your money and time? Your happiness may depend on the decision you make!

Are you a maximizer or a satisficer? Are there ways you could benefit from changing your decision-making style to increase your overall enjoyment of your travel adventures?