As I’ve said before in greater detail, the brain’s decision making machinery is amazingly fragile. Working memory has a finite capacity. According to psychologist George Miller, the conscious brain can juggle only seven pieces of data at any one moment. Heaping on additional information quickly capsizes decision making.

Neuroscientist Jonah Lehrer observes, “Choices that seem straightforward – like choosing a jam in the supermarket – can overwhelm the prefrontal cortex. It gets intimidated by all the jam data. And that’s when bad decisions are made.”

But perhaps the most revealing insight into the paradox of choice comes from Sheena Iyengar, as the social psychologist brilliantly explains how perceptual reality shapes your view of choice. Watch video. It’s one of the best TED videos I’ve seen.

“In reality, many choices are between things that are not that much different. The value of choice depends on our ability to perceive differences between the options. Americans train their whole lives to play ‘spot the difference.’ They practice this from such an early age that they’ve come to believe that everyone must be born with this ability. In fact, though all humans share a basic need and desire for choice, we don’t all see choice in the same places or to the same extent. When someone can’t see how one choice is unlike another, or when there are too many choices to compare and contrast, the process of choosing can be confusing and frustrating. Instead of making better choices, we become overwhelmed by choice. Sometimes even afraid of it. Choice no longer offers opportunities, but imposes constraints. It’s not a marker of liberation, but of suffocation by meaningless minutia. In other words, choice can develop into the very opposite of everything it represents in America when it is thrust upon those who are insufficiently prepared for it.” – Sheena Iyengar

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

In this Monday Morning Quote, author and marketing consultant, Tom Wanek, shares a two-minute marketing tip from the wisdom of neuroscientist Jonah Lehrer, author of How We Decide. Today’s quote discusses simplicity in marketing and its effect on consumers.

Just look around. The importance of trust cannot be underestimated – especially in light of scandals such as Enron, the sub-prime housing bailout, or the disgraced money manager Bernard Madoff.

Also consider that five thousand advertising messages ambush us daily. (Yankelovich, 2008) And many of these ads are overloaded with ad-speak and hype, leaving overwhelmed consumers scrambling to decipher which messages are believable.

Like it or not, your customers are looking for a buying experience they can trust.

Neuroscientist Jonah Lehrer explains in his recent blog post that the brain is uniquely gifted to detect and respond to trust in others. And consumers are unwilling to take risks — that is, buy from you — without sensing you are trustworthy.

Do you want to attract more customers?

Of course you do. So make trust an integral part of your marketing. It will bring you riches.

But for all it’s computational power, the brain’s decision making machinery is amazingly fragile.

Working memory has a finite capacity. According to psychologist George Miller, the conscious brain can juggle only seven pieces of data at any one moment. Heaping on additional information quickly capsizes decision making.

Neuroscientist Jonah Lehrer observes, “Choices that seem straightforward – like choosing a jam in the supermarket – can overwhelm the prefrontal cortex. It gets intimidated by all the jam data. And that’s when bad decisions are made.”

Uncertainty is the costly side-effect of overwhelming your customers with too many choices. Generally speaking, the more options customers have at their fingertips, the more indecisive they’ll become. And complexity often creates the desire for simplicity.

Simplicity is the strategy used to counteract complex purchases.

Consider the emergence of the Flip Camcorder. The Flip eliminated all the doodads and gizmos that prevents us from using – or otherwise buying – a camcorder: Confusing menu options. Bulky size and shape. Cords and recording tapes.

On the flip side (pun fully intended) take a look at the simplicity that the Flip camcorder offers:

• Point-and-shoot with the press of a button
• Pocket-sized shape
• Built-in hard disc and USB adapter
• Runs on two AA batteries
• Low-price, starting at $149.99

Sounds pretty east-to-use, huh? It’s no coincidence that by simplifying the video camcorder, Flip quickly became the top-seller in the $2.4 billion-a-year camcorder industry.

So how might you simplify your product or service to dominate your market?