Study title

This project aimed to explore how people think about choice and involved in depth interviews with 22 people concerning their beliefs about choice, when and why they wanted more or less choice and explored the experience of choice across a number of domains including shopping, health, relationships and work. The results showed that people conceptualised choice in terms of four broad areas: agency which related to the notions of ‘having choices’ and ‘making choices’; salience which involved whether choice was explicit or implicit and was only apparent in retrospect; location in terms of whether choice was conceptualised as personal or social and engagement in terms of whether choice was embraced or resisted. Cutting across these themes was the role of choice in the ways in which people positioned themselves within their social context and the centrality of choice to notions of self identity.

Underlying the recent government focus upon increasing choice is the belief that choice is desirable. Although the literature highlights many positive outcomes of choice, more recent research has suggested that increasing choice can have negative consequences. As perceived control is central to a variety of desired health outcomes, this research aims to explore the paradox that increased choice may lead to diminished perceived control. Contexts relating to both the ‘chooser’ (eg ambivalence and anticipated regret) and the ‘choice provider’ (eg their accountability and trustworthiness) may affect this. The choice/ control relationship will be explored in three studies located in primary healthcare settings. An interview study will allow a qualitative exploration of this. Two experimental studies will systematically manipulate choice and the contextual variables identified above in order to explore the impact of this upon perceived control.