Which of these options would you prefer?

Do options encourage decision making?

Well it's something I've always believed since it was ingrained into me in my Sales Training Manager days at Kraft Foods.
We were taught and so in turn taught others to:  "Offer a choice between an in-cabinet promotional display of Dairylea or a dump bin." And more often than not we got one or the other. Always the innovator! I introduced the "options approach" when selling in large sizes of regular  stocked lines like Philadelphia in the then 8oz size. "Suggest to the store manager that with one size only customers have a 50% choice of saying yes. With two sizes the choice is small, large or no. So we're increasing the chance of a sale to 66%!"
To be honest our success with this line did surprise me! But it seems I was simply ahead of my time with my persuasion psychology.
Since then some serious research has looked at the issue of options and decision making. I was introduced to one in the excellent book "Made to Stick" by Dan and Chip Heath. They discuss work carried out by Psychologists Amos Tversky and Donald Redermeier into situations where the existence of choice affects how people make decisions.

In one example, students faced the choice between - going to the library to study or attending a lecture given by a famous author. 21% chose to study.
Another group of students was given the same choices and a 3rd option was  offered - to watch a foreign film you've been wanting to see. 40% chose to study. Suggesting that increasing the number of alternatives to the "responsible" option reinforced it as the choice that should be made.
Further insights into the impact of choices are currently available in a  fascinating presentation by psychologist Sheena Lyenger available on http://www.ted.com/.  She points out that different cultures respond in different ways to choice. Apparently Russians see a proliferation of soft drink brands as simply one choice of soda!   And she also makes the interesting assessment that too many options result in bad choices being made. 
Clearly no researchers are trying to mathematically model the probability of success based on numbers of options - apart from me that is!!! But when planning that next response to a business pitch ...as an option to the single solution  response why not work up two options? And ask them which one they prefer? You'll probably increase your odds of success!

For more on persuasion browse through the Resource Centre at http://persuadability.co.uk/