Database of Individual Choices (170 Entries)

Individual choices are decisions that are made by a person over the course of their life. These significantly shape the life of an individual. The collective individual choices of billions of people also shape society, culture and the environment on a global basis.

All (170)

Economic (15)

Consumer Choices (14)

Political (12)

Social (30)

Family (13)

Educational (26)

Career (16)

Lifestyle (20)

Media (7)

Personal Development (9)

Ethical & Environmental (7)

Other (5)

Advocacy For a Cause	Asking Someone Out
Attending Events	Being Approachable
Being Emotionally Available	Being Friendly
Being Fully Present	Books You Read
Borrowing Money	Brand Aversion
Brand Loyalty	Brand Switching
Building Relationships	Buying Less
Buying Used Goods	Campaign Contributions
Canceling a Service	Car Ownership
Career Changes	Career Path
Charitable Giving	Choosing Elective Courses
Choosing Friends at School	Choosing Research Topics
Choosing Which Apps to Install	Choosing a College
Choosing a Major	Choosing a Partner
Choosing a Profession	Choosing a Seller
Choosing to Apologize	Choosing to Open Up
Choosing to Share Personal Information	Choosing to Study Hard
Clothing Styles	Community Involvement
Creative Pursuits	DIY Projects
Dating Choices	Debt Repayment
Dietary Choices	Discretionary Purchases
Doing Good	Education Path
Ending Relationships	Engaging In Conversation
Engaging In Debate	Entertainment Choices
Establishing a Good Habit	Ethical Consumerism
Ethical Investing	Exercise Routines
Experimentation	Facing a Fear
Family Meal Choices	Family Nights
Family Norms	Family Outings
Family Rules	Family Talks
Family Traditions	Family Vacations
Financing Purchases	Forgiving Someone
Ghosting Someone	Giving Compliments
Going Back to School	Graduate Work
Greeting Neighbors	Having Children
Hobbies	Homeownership
Hosting Gatherings	Household Budget
Housing Choices	How to Adapt to Change
How to Solve a Problem	How to Spend Time
Identifying Purchasing Needs	Insurance Coverage
Internships	Investment Choices
Inviting Friends Out	Job Selection
Joining Community Organizations	Joining Extracurricular Activities
Joining Political Organizations	Joining School Sports
Joining Social Groups	Joining Social Meals
Joining a Sports Team	Learning a Language
Learning a Musical Instrument	Leaving Social Groups
Leisure Activities	Lending Money
Life Direction	Life Priorities
Lifelong Learning	Lifestyle Changes
Local Sourcing	Making Friends
Marriage	Mastering a Talent
Media Participation	Moving
Overcoming An Obstacle	Overcoming a Weakness
Parenting Style	Participating In School Events
Participating In School Life	Personal Budget
Pet Ownership	Political Affiliations
Practicing Kindness	Prioritizing Quality Time
Productivity Choices	Professional Development Paths
Professional Training	Protesting
Purchasing Decisions	Pursuing Adventure
Pursuing Certifications and Licenses	Pushing Into Projects
Quitting a Bad Habit	Recommending Products
Recreational Activities	Reducing Waste
Relationship Decisions	Retiring
Returning a Product	Risk Taking
Running For Office	Saving Money
School Choices	Screen Time
Second Careers	Self-Improvement Choices
Selling a Product	Service Subscriptions
Setting Professional Goals	Sharing Political Media
Signing a Petition	Slacking at Work
Sleep Habits	Social Media Posts
Spending	Starting a Business
Starting a Side Hustle	Staying In Touch
Study Habits	Studying Abroad
Support Such as Homework Help	Supporting Local Businesses
Supporting Others	Taking Afterschool Classes
Taking on Tasks	Taking on a Challenge
Topics You Research	Transportation Choices
Travel Destinations	Tutoring
Video Game Pursuits	Vocational School
Voicing An Opinion	Voicing Support
Voting	Working For a Startup
Working Hard	Writing Reviews

Individual Responsibility

The collective results of billions of individual decisions have impacts both positive and negative. For example, consumers choosing the highest quality and best values on the market push firms to improve quality and reduce costs. This has massively positive results that creates much value.

On the flip side, individual choices can have unintended negative consequences such as generating pollution or social misery. It is common for people to argue that this means that responsibility to change lies with each individual as opposed to power structures such as governments, industries and firms that are better positioned to actually solve these problems.

While people do have responsibility for their choices it's not pragmatic to solve big problems this way as coordinating millions of people into awareness and action isn't easy.

All too often the idea of personal responsibility is used by power structures to shift responsibility for problems that governments, industries and firms could solve. This can also serve as a distraction that prevents those who are concerned about an issue from pushing power structures to change.

Does Individual Choice Exist?

A common argument is that individual choices are shaped by genetics, experiences, society, culture, systems and so forth such that the future choices you will make have already been set in place.

This is a social variation of a worldview known as determinism that views the future as an inevitable series of cause and effect.

From a modern scientific point of view, the world is certainly not deterministic. If you take an earlier 20th century scientific view, you could argue that the state of matter and energy at a point in time will cause a predictable chain of cause and effect that make the future inevitable.

Of course, modern sciences now accept that the world is in fact probabilistic and chaotic such that small random changes completely change the future and these changes can't be predicted with any certainty. In other words, your future hasn't been decided, or at least science would say that the future of a system such as yourself is not predetermined.

People commonly feel that they have some spark of inspiration or uniqueness that causes them to be more than a chain of cause and effect shaped by society and biology. This would align to modern science and the observation that at the smallest scale of the universe, things are paradoxical and spontaneous more than mechanistic and predictable.

Database of Individual Choices (170 Entries)

Individual Responsibility

Does Individual Choice Exist?

Decision Making

Common Decisions

Cognitive Biases

Social Attitudes

Positive Bias

Negativity Bias

Mindset Types

Defense Mechanisms

Group Behavior

Assumptions Examples

Sunk Costs Examples

Trending

New Articles